(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />Russian fire fighters battled wildfires in Siberia this week as authorities declared a state of emergency in seven of the country's federal districts.<br/> <br />Working with helicopters and on the ground, firefighters tackled blazes that Russia's Federal Forestry Agency's press service has said were mainly caused by burning grass for agricultural purposes.<br/> <br />On Monday (June 25) Russian authorities announced a state of emergency in Russia's Tyva Republic, the Khanty-Mansiisk autonomous district, the Sakha Republic, Amur, Krasnoyarsk, Zabaikalsky and Sakhalin regions, due to the fires.<br/> <br />The head of Greenpeace Russia's wildfire program, Grigory Kuksin, said that the fires were more severe in terms of land ravaged than 2010, when drought-aggravated blazes killed dozens and doubled the death rate in the capital Moscow by blanketing it in toxic smoke.<br/> <br />Russia's 2010 wild fires destroyed crops, causing the country to lose billions of dollars of gross domestic product.
