Wildfires Cloud Moscow; Russia Bans Grain Exports

(Aug. 6) -- The Kremlin's spires are barely visible through a smoky haze shrouding Moscow today, as Russians don face masks, flights are delayed and the government scrambles to move its nuclear arsenal out of the path of the country's worst-ever wildfires.

Officials also are warning that the fires could stir up radioactive contamination from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster.

A summertime drought that has exacerbated the fires has also withered Russia's wheat crops, prompting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to halt all grain exports for the rest of the year -- a move that sent world food prices skyrocketing. U.S. prices have soared to their highest level in two years.

More than 140 flights have been delayed to and from Moscow airports, and pollution stands at nearly five times maximum admissible levels, Bloomberg News reported. Sergei Izvolsky, a spokesman for the Federal Air Transportation Agency, said visibility had improved at three airports after being as low as 400 meters earlier today.

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Russian Wildfires

Russian soldiers spray water on the burnt roots of tree in the forest near Noginsk on August 10, 2010. Russia fought a deadly battle to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud that has shrouded Moscow. AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV (Photo credit should read VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)

Russian Wildfires

A Bulgarian firefighter drinks water from a fire hose while fighting a blaze in the forest near Noginsk on August 10, 2010. Russia fought a deadly battle to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud that has shrouded Moscow. AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV (Photo credit should read VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)

Russian Wildfires

Russian soldiers spray water on a blaze in the forest near Noginsk on August 10, 2010. Russia fought a deadly battle to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud that has shrouded Moscow. AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV (Photo credit should read VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)

Russian Wildfires

A Bulgarian firefighter sprays water on a blaze in the forest near in Noginsk on August 10, 2010. Russia fought a deadly battle to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud that has shrouded Moscow. AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV (Photo credit should read VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)

Russian Wildfires

Bulgarian firefighters spray water on a blaze in the forest near in Noginsk on August 10, 2010. Russia fought a deadly battle to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud that has shrouded Moscow. AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV (Photo credit should read VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)

Russian Wildfires

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev uses a touch screen computer at the presidential residence in Sochi on August 10, 2010. Russia is starting to count the losses of the worst heatwave in its history, with economists saying the weather may cost the economy billions of dollars and undercut a modest economic revival. AFP PHOTO / RIA NOVOSTI / KREMLIN POOL / DMITRY ASTAKHOV (Photo credit should read DMITRY ASTAKHOV/AFP/Getty Images)

Russian Wildfires

Health experts told the BBC that inhaling Moscow's air today is as dangerous as smoking several packs of cigarettes a day.

More than 600 separate fires are burning in western and central regions, where at least 50 people have been killed and up to 2,000 homes destroyed. Seven Russian regions are under a state of emergency. August temperatures, which normally hover in the mid-70s in Moscow, are forecast to exceed 100 degrees through the weekend.

In a race to protect Russia's nuclear arsenal from the wildfires, the defense ministry has ordered missiles moved from a depot outside Moscow, Agence France-Presse reported. The government also says there's a risk that the fires could reactivate contamination in an area hit by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, AFP said.

"We are painstakingly controlling the situation in the Bryansk region. If a fire appears there, the radioactive particles could fly away with the smoke and a new polluted area could appear," Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu told AFP.

As anger over the fires rises, Moscow is summoning local mayors for a "debriefing," and those found to have lagged in the response to battling the blazes "will be brought to justice," The New York Times quoted Russian media as saying.

Russia is one of the world's largest grain exporters, and the wildfires have destroyed at least a fifth of the country's total wheat crop so far this year. While Putin's ban on exports will likely lead to slightly higher prices of bread in the U.S. and Europe, the real impact will be on the Middle East and Africa. Egypt is the world's biggest single importer of wheat, mostly from Russia.

Putin announced the ban at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, saying Russia needs to keep its grain reserves for itself this year, and keep down local prices. "We need to prevent a rise in domestic food prices, we need to preserve the number of cattle and build up reserves for next year," he said in comments broadcast live on Russian television and picked up later by several foreign news outlets. "As the saying goes: reserves don't make your pocket heavy."

Putin's decision to protect Russia's domestic grain supply at the expense of export countries is a populist move that signals he still commands control of the Russian economy even after stepping down as president, another Times article reports.