MOSCOW – MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday chastised the billionaire owner of a nickel giant for negligence over a massive fuel oil spill that has inflicted huge damage on a fragile Arctic region.
An estimated 20,000 tons of diesel oil spilled into the Ambarnaya River last Friday from a broken tank at a power plant in Norilsk, 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) northeast of Moscow.
Booms were laid across the river to prevent the fuel oil from getting into a lake downstream that feeds another river leading to the environmentally delicate Arctic Ocean.