MOSCOW -- Russia's deadly summer heatwave could wipe up to $14 billion (8 billion pounds) off economic growth, economists said on Tuesday, as wildfires raged on in several provinces and forecasters said sweltering weather won't abate this week. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has sought to burnish his action-man image and minimize political fallout from wildfires and drought, flew in a firefighting plane that dropped water on a blaze southeast of Moscow, state media reported. State-run television showed Putin wearing headphones in a cockpit, pressing buttons on a handheld control panel. Weather forecasters said by Monday the unprecedented heatwave had lasted for an uninterrupted 50-day streak in Moscow and central Russia, with day temperatures hovering at 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit) or above. Two people -- an interior ministry officer and a prisons service guard -- have died fighting fires near the Sarov nuclear research centre and in the nearby Mordovia region in the last day, bringing the official death toll from the fires to 54. Hundreds more people are believed to have died from the effects of the heatwave and smoke choking Moscow, doctors say. The worst heatwave on record could knock 1 percentage point off gross domestic product, according to estimates, weakening a recovery from a 2009 slump due to the global financial crisis. Before blistering temperatures parched crops and stoked wildfires that have shrouded Moscow in smoke, the economy had been expected to grow about 4 percent in 2010 after dropping by 7.9 percent last year -- the first contraction in a decade.
