What is driving the record-bad flooding that has devastated parts of Russia and Kazakhstan and forced tens of thousands of people to escape the fast-rising water? AFP looks at the worst flooding in decades to hit this region: Spring and snow Spring floods in Russia and northern Kazakhstan “are to be expected and are a regular occurrence,” said Maria Shahgedanova, a climate scientist at the University of Reading. This region endured similar major floods in 1922, 1942 and 1957 though the current disaster was “extraordinary and all previous ‘records’ have been surpassed,” she added. The Ural Rive…