Filed from Aberdeen
1/30/2008 6:12:18 PM GMT
RUSSIA: Nineteen local and international environmental organizations have called on Sir Fred Goodwin, CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), to recall a controversial US$1 billion loan by ABN AMRO for the Russian energy giant Gazprom’s purchase of a controlling share of the enormous Sakhalin II oil and gas project in Russia.
Sakhalin II has caused many severe environmental problems and violates the Equator Principles, to which RBS has signed, claim the Pacific Environment organisation. The groups have also requested to meet with Goodwin. RBS leads a consortium of banks that purchased ABN AMRO in 2007.
Environmental groups claim they have opposed ABN AMRO financing for Sakhalin II because the project threatens the Western Gray Whale with extinction, damages hundreds of wild salmon runs, and negatively impacts local communities.
“When RBS bought ABN AMRO, it acquired the bank’s assets and liabilities, including financial and reputational, and thus the responsibility to address the wrongful financing of Sakhalin II,” said Dmitry Lisitsyn, chairman, Sakhalin Environment Watch.
Environmental groups and independent consultants of potential lenders, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have for many years documented Sakhalin II’s severe, chronic and irreversible violations of bank environmental policies.
For private banks, this includes the Equator Principles on environmental performance, which both RBS and ABN AMRO have committed to follow. EBRD eventually withdrew its consideration of Sakhalin II while many other banks suspended consideration of the project due to environmental problems.
“At the 2005 ABN AMRO Annual Meeting, Chief Executive Officer Rijkman Groenink committed to not finance Sakhalin II until it was brought into compliance with the Equator Principles,” said Paul de Clerck of Friends of the Earth International, who was at the 2005 ABN AMRO Annual Meeting where the commitment was made.
“So, it came as a complete shock when the bank circumvented the Principles by financing Sakhalin II through one of the project sponsors. RBS must now take responsibility to correct this damage.”
“The buck now stops at RBS,” said Doug Norlen, policy director, Pacific Environment.
http://www.energycurrent.com/index.php?id=2&storyid=8499
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
