Putin to continue his working tour of Russia's regions

President Vladimir Putin will proceed on his way in a working tour of Russia's regions. The main theme of the Head of State's working tour which began on Monday is, first of all, the situation in the Russian Federation's constituent entities hit by floods. The very first part of the tour was dedicated to the state of affairs in the energy sector. Over the past two days, the President visited Kemerovo Region, in particular, where he held a session of the Commission on the development of the fuel and energy sector and on energy security, and met with mineworkers, as well as with the family members of the miners who had died in a blast in the Raspadskaya coalmine in 2010. After visiting Kemerovo Region, Putin arrived in the Khakass Republic where he chaired a meeting at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower station on the development of the electric poweri ndustry of Siberia and the Far East. Abakan will not be a final leg of the President's tour. Last week, Putin stated and intention to visit Far Eastern regions hit by floods and hold a meetingy there to estimate the floods-inflicted damage and plan out the rehabilitation of the territories. "We must estitmate the entire damage and map out a plan for specific actions of the regions and the Federal center so as to restore the lost infrastructure and homesteads," he said in remarks made in Rostov-on-Don on August 22. A group of ten Federal ministers, led by First Vice-Premier Igor Shuvalov, left for the Far East by air on Tuesday to participate in work to this end.