“We'll have to ask law enforcement agencies to figure it out”: Putin - about the untimely reaction to the emergency in Norilsk

Vladimir Putin considers it necessary to introduce a federal emergency regime due to the spill of diesel fuel in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

The head of state held a meeting dedicated to this incident. Among the participants was the head of the Ministry of Emergencies, Yevgeny Zinichev, who stated the need to recognize the emergency situation at the federal level. The president agreed with this assessment.

“I agree with your proposal regarding the announcement of the emergency,” Putin said.

On May 29, the territory of the CHPP-3 of the Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company, which is part of the Norilsk Nickel group, was depressed in the tank with diesel fuel. As a result, about 20 thousand tons of fuel spilled.

Putin was outraged by the belated reaction of the authorities to the current situation.

“Why did the authorities learn about this only two days later? Are we going to learn about emergencies from social networks? Is everything all right with your health there? ” - Putin said during the meeting.

Talking with the governor of the region, Alexander Uss, Putin was surprised that the head of the region read out the report without proposing a solution to the problem.

“What is the report? And finished. What to do? You are the governor, ”the president said. He ordered the immediate liquidation of the consequences of the accident.

• “Will we learn about emergency situations from social networks, or what?”: Putin was indignant at the untimely report on the fuel spill in Norilsk

“When spilling fuel in the waters of various rivers, bodies of water, generally on the seas, the same reagents are used and so on. We must do this promptly, as soon as possible, right now, ”the head of state said.

As the head of the Ministry of Emergencies specified during the meeting, the preliminary cause of the emergency is the sinking of the foundation piles.

“According to preliminary information, due to subsidence of the foundation piles, the tank was depressurized, as a result, fuel spilled onto the technological road, followed by ignition. At the same time, fuel continued to leak into the waters of the Daldykan and Ambarnaya rivers, ”Zinichev said.

According to the minister, for two days the employees of the enterprise tried to eliminate the consequences of the accident themselves. Zinichev said that a call about the situation to emergency services arrived only on May 31. To date, Zinichev continued, experts have already collected more than 100 tons of oil products and soil from the place of the diesel fuel spill.

“To localize the consequences of the spill, a significant amount of work is required to collect oil products in the waters of the rivers and on the adjacent lands,” Zinichev stated.

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In addition, the head of the Ministry of Transport, Yevgeny Dietrich, said that the Maritime and Rescue Service is also taking part in the response to the diesel spill in Norilsk. According to him, 780 tons of contaminated soil have already been exported to an industrial dump in the territory of TPP-3. He also said that fuel is being pumped out of the low parts of the river.

In turn, the head of the region said that the liquidation of the accident may require more than two weeks, announced earlier.

“The main problem arises with the disposal of petroleum products that are pumped out by pumps from the river. Today there are no transportation schemes, about 20 km of impassability. The river itself is not navigable, ”the governor said. He added that in the region there is no experience in the utilization of such an amount of fuel, in particular, through combustion.

Putin instructed law enforcement agencies to understand the actions of those responsible in an emergency.

“Well, well, I’ll have to ask the relevant regulatory and law enforcement agencies to figure out what was transferred from whom, where it was transferred and what was the reaction of everyone who should act in accordance with the relevant instructions, as expected,” Putin said at the meeting.

Criminal Cases and Detentions

The State Office of Public Prosecutor is already engaged in state of emergency in Norilsk. The department said that the head of the CHPP-3 workshop was detained in the case of a fuel leak.

As indicated in the department, earlier, according to the materials of the prosecutor’s inspections, criminal cases were initiated on “Land damage” (part 1 of article 254 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and “Water pollution” (article 250 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Later it became known that the third criminal case was initiated under the article “Violation of the rules of environmental protection during the performance of work” (Article 246 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

“On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, the situation is under special control of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation,” the department concluded.

Later, the Investigative Committee said that the criminal case of a fuel spill in Norilsk was transferred to the central office of the department. Three cases under articles on land damage, water pollution and violation of environmental protection rules in the course of work are combined into one, according to the Investigative Committee.