Heavy smog that has covered Moscow and the Moscow region may continue for up to two and half months, the head of Greenpeace Russia's Forest Programme said on Monday.
Doctors have warned of the dangers to health caused by the smog, a mixture of smoke from peat fires and petrol fumes, and have advised the elderly and the very young to stay indoors in the worst affected areas.
"Moscow and the Moscow region is covered with smog that comes mainly from the Meshcherskaya lowland peat bog [to the east of the capital]," Alexey Yaroshenko said at a RIA Novosti round table on Monday.
"It is not getting any better, because the peat bog fires are raging in all the regions around Moscow," he said. He also noted that similar fires can also be found in other central parts of European Russia such as the Tverskaya and Ivanovo regions.
"The burning of hay also plays its part," the ecologist said.
RIA Novosti
