Mishustin announces establishment of Russian govt commission to handle Kerch Strait fuel oil spill

MOSCOW. Jan 13 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has announced the establishment of an ad hoc government commission to address the consequences of the recent spill of oil products in the Kerch Strait.

"In line with the head of state's directives, a government commission has been set up to coordinate work on eliminating the consequences of the fuel oil spill," Mishustin said at a meeting with deputy prime ministers on Monday.

Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev will head the commission, and Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov has been appointed his first deputy, he said.

Kurenkov has been tasked with the operational management of all services at the incident site, Mishustin said.

The commission also includes Natural Resources and Environment Minister Alexander Kozlov, Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, as well as some other senior officials from federal agencies and regional administrations.

"It's very important to restore the unique ecosystem of the Black Sea coast in Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Crimea, clean it from pollutants, and do everything possible to prevent new leaks of oil products," Mishustin said.

He asked Kurenkov to monitor this work on an ongoing basis.

Until now, the mitigation effort has been coordinated by a working group set up by Mishustin immediately after the wreck of oil tankers last December, the government said on its website.

In commenting on the decision to set up the government commission, Mishustin said, "It's important to considerably improve the efficiency of this work, and if necessary, to employ extra material and human resources and engage scientific organizations to resolve the problem of cleaning up the spill of oil products in the Black Sea."