The applicable Russian legislation has made administrative and criminal liability more rigorous with regard to unauthorized burning of dry grass that has led to forest fires

The fire season in 2014 has started in Russia one and a half months prior to its usual timeframe. By the moment when natural fires only start to appear, more than 500 forest fires have already occurred in the Republic, which was anxiously acknowledged by the Chairperson of the Government of the Russian Federation, D.A. Medvedev, on April 2nd during the conference call with regions.

The problem of agricultural burning of dry grass in our country is systematic. In the majority of cases, agricultural burning is organized by the population instead of experts with no due regard to the fire safety rules that require tangible expenditures, which leads to the spread of fire to settlements, economic facilities, as well as the lands of the forest fund. More than 160 large forest fires annually take place due to uncontrolled agricultural burning of dry grass, and they cause the greatest ecological and economic damage.  By burning dry grass we inflict a considerable damage on the environment: the natural process of mouldy substance is disturbed, thus, depleting soil fertility. During agricultural burning insects are destroyed, including plant pollinizers, the places of nesting and egg-laying areas of birds living on the territory burn down. Beneficial soil microorganisms, including those that help the plants fight diseases also die during grass burning. Virtually all mammals that live in the grass or on the soil surface die from fire or suffocate in the smoke during massive fires caused by grass burning.

According to Article 8.32 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, imposition of a fine is envisaged for unauthorized burning of dry grass that has led to forest fires, namely: from 2 to 5 thousand rubles with regard to individuals, from 7 to 50 thousand rubles with regard to officials, and from 50 thousand to 1 million rubles with regard to legal entities.