Putin Chides Nornickel, Orders Law Change After Arctic Fuel Spill

Russia's President Vladimir Putin takes part in a video conference call with representatives of environmental and animal protection public organizations, at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, on June 5, 2020. Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin via Reuters

MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin chided the billionaire boss of Norilsk Nickel on Friday over a huge Arctic fuel spill and ordered changes to the law to try to prevent such a disaster from happening again.

Greenpeace has compared the scale of last week’s accident near the northern city of Norilsk, where 21,000 tonnes of diesel poured into rivers and subsoil, to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.