MOSCOW—In Russia's Far East near Japan, residents bought up pills to ward off radioactive isotopes, and military units prepared to evacuate towns on concerns of nuclear fallout, even as the government insisted that radiation levels in Russia remain at safe levels.
The country's flagship airline, OAO Aeroflot, said it would check incoming aircraft from Tokyo for radiation at its hub in Moscow. Meanwhile, Russia's nuclear chief complained to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that his atomic experts, including a veteran of the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago, haven't been permitted to enter Japan.
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A meteorologist uses a dosimeter to measure radiation levels in the Russian city of Vladivostok.
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Russian military units stationed on the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which are disputed with Japan, prepared for a possible evacuation because of the nuclear threat, only days after they were warned about the tsunami. The military also said it would help evacuate civilians from the islands, Interfax reported.
Japanese officials appeared to have regained some control of Japan's troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Tuesday afternoon, at least for now, after spikes in radiation levels that followed a new explosion at one reactor and a fire at another earlier in the day put the nation on high alert.
As Russia and Ukraine prepare to mark the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl in April, many residents recall how little information the Soviet authorities released for days following the accident.
Some Russians living close to Japan decided not to wait for government warnings, and many visited pharmacies to buy iodine pills, believed to prevent the body from absorbing radioactive isotopes.
"There has definitely been a run on these kinds of medicines in the last two days," said a salesperson at a pharmacy in Vladivostok, adding that it had completely ran out of iodine tablets.
Dosimeters, which measure exposure to radiation, were also selling more quickly than usual.
"Yes, people are buying pharmaceuticals in the drugstores and dosimeters," said Alexei Rasputny, a reporter from the Novaya Gazeta newspaper in Vladivostok, Russia's main port on the Pacific. "But nobody is leaving, nobody is talking about that."
New York-Presbyterian Hospital's Radiation Oncologist-in-Chief Clifford Chao helps explain the health risks and symptoms that could result from a meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Northern Japan.
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An emergency official in the Kuril Islands said that the "people who were evacuated in connection with the tsunami have already returned home some time ago."
Russia's easternmost regions reported steady radiation levels of between nine and 13 micro-Roentgens per hour, well within safe levels, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. The wind in Sakhalin was blowing from the north toward Japan, opposing any release of radioactive materials.
Russia so far doesn't see a need to evacuate its diplomatic personnel from Japan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
—Ira Iosebashvili, Olga Padorina and Nonna Fomenko contributed to this article
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