Moscow authorities warned that the burning smell that has permeated the capital since Friday will linger for the next few days as pollutants from smoke of a disputed origin subside, Interfax reported Sunday.
The Emergency Situations Ministry and Greenpeace both reported that the capital's streets have been covered in smog, but disagreed on the source of the smoke.
On Friday, Greenpeace Russia's forest campaigner Alexei Yaroshenko told Interfax that the smoke Muscovites were inhaling had most likely come from the burning of peat in the Bryansk region, located 385 kilometers southwest of the capital.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said Saturday that the smoke had in fact come from the controlled burning of logging residues in the Moscow region.