Putin chastises Russian tycoon over massive Arctic oil spill

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

Putin has declared a state of emergency in region to help minimize consequences of spill. power plant is operated by a division of rilsk Nickel, whose giant plants in area have me rilsk one of most heavily polluted places on planet. Investigators have started looking into cause of accident and local officials' failure to quickly report it to federal authorities. company said accident might have been triggered by melting permafrost.

During Friday’s call with officials and environmental experts, Putin lashed out at rilsk Nickel owner Vlimir Potanin, saying it was his company’s responsibility to check fuel tanks' condition.

“re wouldn’t have been dam to environment if you replaced m in time,” Putin told Potanin, who is Russia’s richest man with an estimated fortune of $25.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Potanin said that his company will pay for cleanup efforts that he estimated at 10 billion rubles ($146 million) and will also stand rey to pay fines for dam to environment.