Russia refuses to pay for oil clean-up

The Russian government is refusing to pay a €155,000 bill for cleaning up an oil spill which threatened pollution of the Cork coast in 2009, despite admitting the leak was caused by one of its aircraft carriers.

The Government has confirmed that the Russian Federation has so far made no payment for the cost of the large-scale clean-up operation, which was overseen by the Irish Coast Guard.

It is understood the Russian embassy in Dublin has disputed the size of the bill submitted by the Government in the belief that the size of the spill was much smaller than the coastguard has claimed.