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Oil Spill in Russia Draws Criticism from Putin, Sparks Investigation

VOA News

   A massive oil spill that occurred a week ago in Russia's Arctic region
   has resulted in an emergency declaration by the country's president and
   a government response to assess and clean up the damage.

   Approximately 20,000 tons of diesel oil leaked from a storage tank on
   May 29, seeping into the Ambarnaya River in a part of Siberia located
   above the Arctic Circle, authorities said.

   The tank was at an industrial plant operated by a subsidiary of Norilsk
   Nickel, the world's largest producer of palladium and one of the
   largest producers of nickel, platinum and copper.

   The incident was reportedly caused by "abnormally mild
   temperatures"that caused the permafrost beneath the tank to thaw,
   leading to its structural collapse, according to a company official. A
   government investigation into the cause is being conducted. The French
   news agency AFP reports the spill has been contained.

     "The company is working painstakingly to understand what happened
     ... we suspect that abnormally mild temperatures caused the
     permafrost beneath the support to thaw, and even a slight skewing in
     weight distribution would lead to the structure's collapse due to
     the tank's weight." [1]pic.twitter.com/C7mUUHTRLH
     -- Nornickel (@NornickelGroup) [2]June 2, 2020

   The spillage was reported by the plant's employees two days after it
   happened, drawing criticism from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

   "Why did government agencies find out about this only after two days?"
   Putin asked during a televised [3]government conference on Wednesday.
   "Are we going to find out about emergencies from social media now?"

   The Russian president then approved the [4]state of emergencyto manage
   the spill.

   Government teams, including the Siberian branch of Russia's Ministry of
   Emergencies and Russia's Maritime & River Transport Agency, have been
   involved in cleanup efforts.

     "I think decontamination will cost Nornickel billions of roubles,
     but I'm speaking not as a businessman, but as a human being
     concerned about the situation: whatever the cost, we will pay it,"
     said Nornickel's CEO Vladimir Potanin in a televised call with
     Russian president Putin. [5]pic.twitter.com/IoD2mfvKge
     -- Nornickel (@NornickelGroup) [6]June 5, 2020

   Vladimir Potanin, the billionaire president of Norilsk Nickel, said
   [7]the company would pay the costs, estimated at $146 million.

   The [8]Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is
   interrogatingindividuals about delayed warnings to the public about the
   spill.

References

   1. https://t.co/C7mUUHTRLH
   2. https://twitter.com/NornickelGroup/status/1267862030201036808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   3. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/869936256/russian-power-plant-spills-thousands-of-tons-of-oil-into-arctic-region
   4. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-pollution/putin-backs-state-of-emergency-in-arctic-region-over-fuel-spill-in-river-idUSKBN23A2HL
   5. https://t.co/IoD2mfvKge
   6. https://twitter.com/NornickelGroup/status/1268908115157712896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   7. https://apnews.com/acf73e5b44c96a329d576aeed5ef7a09
   8. https://sledcom.ru/news/item/1470452/

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