Lithuania bills Russia $32,000 for environmental damage caused by crash of fighter jet

The Lithuanian government on Wednesday handed a bill of 92,000 litas (US$32,000; Ђ27,000) to Moscow for environmental and crop damage caused by the crash of a Russian fighter jet. Lithuania claims Russia has promised to pay for any damage caused by the crash The Su-27 fighter bomber, en route from St. Petersburg to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, crashed in the Lithuanian countryside on Sept. 15. The pilot ejected safely.

The crash worsened already tense relations between Russia and the former Soviet republic as Lithuania held the pilot for three weeks before releasing him, the AP reports.

The prosecutor's office said Moscow should pay 67,000 litas (US$23,000; Ђ19,400) in compensation to a farming company and 25,000 litas (US$9,000; Ђ7,200) to the Lithuanian government for environmental pollution. A.M.