The head of a local government in a central Russian district where 12 people died in wildfires resigned on Saturday.
Alexei Sokolov's resignation has yet to be accepted.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who visited the Vyksa district in Nizhny Novgorod on Friday, said local government chiefs who have failed to cope with the deadly wildfires should resign.
Many residents in the Nizhny Novgorod region, whose houses had been burnt down in the fires, complained to Putin, at the scene to assess the situation, that the actions taken by local authorities were chaotic and uncoordinated.
Over the last 24 hours, over 1,000 homes have been destroyed and entire villages burned to the ground in the largest wildfire ever to hit the European part of Russia.
Temperatures across much of western and central Russia have topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) during the past five weeks, causing peat bog and forest fires and creating what is thought to be the worst drought since 1972.
Putin has ordered a total of 5 billion rubles ($165 million) to be disbursed from the federal budget to the central Russian areas worst affected by wildfires.
He said the families of those who died in wildfires would receive 1 million rubles ($33,000) in compensation each. He also said the government would allocate around 3 million rubles ($100,000) for the reconstruction of each burnt down house.
The government will also allocate funds to compensate the loss of personal property.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the immediate construction of housing for those left homeless by the fires.
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, July 31 (RIA Novosti)
