City Diary: Russia and the Netherlands cement special relationship with Shell drilling deal
By Harriet Dennys, City Diary Editor 8:30AM BST 10 Apr 2013
Good to see Vladimir Putin looking for leadership guidance on his trade tour of the Netherlands.
Not from Shell chairman Jorma Ollila – although the pair’s date to sign off the Arctic drilling agreement between Shell and Russia’s state-owned Gazprom Neft was the focus of the Russian president’s Dutch detour.
Instead, Putin made a beeline for the Hermitage museum in Amsterdam, where he soaked up the opening of an exhibition on his political predecessor, Peter the Great. Peter de Grote, as he is in known in the Low Countries, used the Netherlands as the template for his mission to modernise 17th century Russia.
With that lucrative joint Russia-Netherlands Arctic oil project in the bag, it seems that special relationship continues…
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.
