President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the Emergency Situations Ministry to send two cargo planes loaded with humanitarian aid to Chile after the South American country was rocked by a powerful earthquake last week, a Kremlin spokesman told reporters Tuesday.
The first Il-76 cargo plane carrying tents, blankets and electric power generators will arrive in Chile on Wednesday, and a second plane with other humanitarian aid will follow a day later, a ministry spokeswoman told The Moscow Times on Tuesday.
“No Russian rescue teams will be sent there, only the aid,” she said.
More than 700 people have died and about 2 million have been displaced after the magnitude-8.8 earthquake hit the Chilean coast last Friday. No Russian citizens were killed or wounded during the quake, but the Russian Embassy in the capital of Santiago was slightly damaged.
Russian rescue teams recently took part in a relief operation in Haiti after the Caribbean Island was devastated by a powerful earthquake in January.