Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

It’s a Moscow summer day to remember: it’s hot - up to 40 degrees Celsius - it’s stuffy, and there’s smog, smog, smog everywhere. Forest and peat bog fires near Moscow have covered the city with a yellowish smoke that residents find almost impossible to escape. Moscow is like a mirage - a ghost town with a shroud and an almost recognizable outline of the cathedrals, the Kremlin towers, churches. There’s a silhouette of Pushkin – the poet as a "stalker" in the zone of smog, and it seems that only he is without a mask. Gauze bandages, masks, handkerchiefs soaked in water, and even gas masks - without this protective gear sometimes it’s simply impossible to breathe. One can only hope that a change for the better, in the weather and air quality, in Central Russia is not far off. Photos by VOA’s Sergei Moskalev in Moscow