The Prime Minister emphasized that the issue should get special priority.

“During the select meetings you intend to hold weekly, remind the heads of the Russian Federation regions that the sooner they determine the scale of the real damage, the sooner that the affected businesses can receive assistance,” Putin told his First Deputy, while adding that “this needs to be done more expeditiously.”

Following his tête-à-tête with Putin, Zubkov said he had been empowered with the task of making sure that government programs go into effect without any unnecessary red tape to thwart the emergency efforts.

“We intend to monitor the entire situation, and we are working together with governors to see that the decisions made – on budgetary credits, subsidies, direct grants, and if need be, on extending the received credits and selling Intervention Fund grain – more quickly reach the regions and specific agricultural producers,” Zubkov said, as quoted by Interfax. “The most important issue now is that [the government program] does not take a lot of time.”

Zubkov also mentioned the precarious situation now facing Russia’s dairy farms, saying that the government will hold a series of meetings with the National Milk Producers Union to address the situation.

“We will discuss with them the situation that has developed and could develop in the near-term perspective for milk production, so that…there is no decrease in the number of cattle, and milk cows are supplied with feed,” Interfax quoted Zubkov as saying. “The decisions that will be made will get to real people, regions, and businesses right away.”

Just last week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on government officials to find ways to save part of this year’s ravaged harvest.

“This is a big problem. There has been no anomaly like this in our country for decades,” Medvedev told a government meeting in the agricultural Belgorod region near Ukraine last week. “We need to figure out how we can preserve at least some of the crop.”

Meanwhile, Russia's agriculture ministry says it will introduce a grain intervention program next month as scorching temperatures and drought conditions have destroyed at least one-fifth of grain crops across the country.

Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said on Wednesday that the government will sell at least three million tons of grain to struggling meat and dairy producers in the drought-hit areas.

The ministry added that about 9.6 million hectares (23,700,000 acres) of crops was killed by the heat wave that has settled over Central Russia and the Ural mountains for the past three weeks.

At least 23 of Russia's 83 regions have announced a state of emergency due to record-breaking temperatures that destroyed up to 50% of crops in some of the regions.

The combined losses of Russia's farming industry could total $1 billion this year, business daily Kommersant reported.

Robert Bridge, RT