Russia detains Arctic power station managers it blames for fuel spill

Investigators said the three men would formally be charged and that their pre-trial detention periods would be decided soon.Nornickel has said it believes the accident was caused by thawing permafrost which weakened the foundations of the storage tank.

Russian investigators said on Wednesday they had detained three managers of an Arctic power station whom it blamed for a fuel spill last month which leaked 21,000 tonnes of diesel into rivers and subsoil. Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement it was continuing to look into what caused the fuel spill in Norilsk, home to Norilsk Nickel, the world's leading nickel and palladium producer.

But it said it had detained the head of the power station and the chief engineer and his deputy whom it said had illegally continued to use an unsafe fuel tank to store diesel fuel despite it needing major repairs since 2018. "As a result, the accident occurred," the statement said.

Greenpeace has compared the disaster to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, saying it has caused significant damage to the surrounding environment. Investigators said the three men would formally be charged and that their pre-trial detention periods would be decided soon.

Nornickel has said it believes the accident was caused by thawing permafrost which weakened the foundations of the storage tank. It said it believed investigators' decision to detain the managers were overly harsh.

"There is no reason to believe that our colleagues could interfere with the investigation," Nornickel said. "The power station managers are working with law enforcement officials and would be much more helpful on the clean-up site."