Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned of "radical changes" to the Federal Forestry Agency, Rosleskhoz, if it fails to set up effective work.

On August 27, Medvedev signed a decree reassigning Rosleskhoz to answer directly to the government.

Medvedev said he was waiting for extensive proposals from the government in regard to changes in the Forest Code.

"I would like to hear preliminary assessments of what we have, what we should do, which measures were taken in the right direction, which ones had not contributed to tackling the wildfires or aggravated the situation. Naturally, I am waiting for certain proposals from the government over the legal changes," Medvedev said.

Medvedev also said Russia needs to learn from international experience in putting out wildfires, especially the technologies used in Spain.

"Yesterday the Spanish King [Juan Carlos I] called me. For the second time, by the way. [The Spaniards] expressed their empathies because wildfires are a classic ordeal for Spain. But they have a lot of projects [concerning extinguishing fires]," Medvedev said.

Forest and peat bog fires raged in European Russia in July-August. The fires killed over 50 people, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and 11 million hectares of crops. Several Spanish regions were also affected by wildfires this summer.

GORKI (Moscow region), September 8 (RIA Novosti)