A court in Russia's southeastern Siberian republic of Buryatia has fined a local resident 581 million rubles ($19.6 million) after his discarded cigarette butt started a fire which destroyed two hectares of forest in 2009.

“The court has established that in June 2009 Alexander Malkov, 21, threw a burning cigarette butt into dry grass near Klyuchi village, a Regional Prosecutor General’s Office spokesman said. "He saw that fire had spread to grass and trees, but he did not take any measures to put out the flames and left the burning area.”.

The damage caused to the local forest was assessed at 581 million rubles. The court ordered Malkov to pay compensation for the damage.

He was also sentenced to a year of community service work.