Here’s how Gazprom funded no-nuclear and pro-gas environmentalists (Russian)
Gazprom has funded several anti-nuclear (but pro-gas) environmental groups in the United States and Europe for years. The article by Tino Oldani for Italy Today
Let's face it: the revelation is belated, but no less disturbing for this. For years, in the United States and Europe, notably in Germany and Belgium, various environmental groups opposed to nuclear energy, but in favor of Russian gas, have been financed by Gazprom. The result: green pressure on governments, closure of important nuclear power plants, especially in Germany, and a sharp increase in Europe's dependence on Russian gas, which has reached 40%. Thus, thanks to the collection of hundreds of billions of dollars, Vladimir Putin has financed rearmament and military aggression in Georgia, Crimea and Donbass, and most recently in Ukraine.
The source of the revelation is the French Dominique Reynié, director of Fondapol (Foundation for political innovation), based in Paris, which has just published an extensive research on the strengths and weaknesses of 55 democracies in the world, entitled «Freedom : the challenge of the century ". Commenting on the study, writes the liberal newspaper Contrepoints, Reynié said: "We found Gazprom funding, in particular to environmental NGOs, which provided ministers to some countries, which then embarked on a sort of return of favor by siding with the exit. from nuclear power ". The movie of the declaration, a real bomb, is on the web.
Contrepoints' in-depth analysis on the subject reveals that Gazprom, a giant with a turnover of 160 billion dollars a year and 13 billion in profits, has for years financed environmental groups in the United States, Germany and Belgium, movements indicated with a lot of name and sums received. It is therefore no coincidence that on 11 March two US Republican deputies, Jim Banks and Bill Johnson, sent a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, to ask for "an investigation into the Russian manipulation of American green groups, which are apparently financed with money of obscure origin ».
Among the American environmental organizations mentioned in the letter from the two deputies, the Sierra Club and the League of Conservatives Voters Education Fund stand out, "all heavily involved in the opposition to the exploitation of shale gas in the United States, to reduce its competition for oil and Russian gas. They received ten million dollars a year from the American Sea Foundation, which is richly endowed by the umbrella company based in Bermuda, ”the latter suspected of being Gazprom's financial shield. The hypothesis that Putin's Russia, through Gazprom, was financing American environmentalists to fuel a disinformation campaign against shale-gas and nuclear energy, had been raised in the past by two other Republican MPs, Randy Weber and Lamar Smith, who on 29 June 2017 had written a letter to the then Treasury Minister, Steven Mnuchin, asking for an investigation into the origin of Russian funding, conveyed through tax havens. Result of research at the time: zero. Now it's up to Yellen to dig deep.
The relationship between green groups operating in Germany and Russian funding is clearer, but no less embarrassed. Contrepoints writes: «The main German environmental organizations WWF, Bund and Nabu have set up an environmental foundation (Naturschutzstiftung Deutsche Ostsee) together with the company Nord Stream Ag, the consortium that built the Russian-German gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. This foundation was endowed with ten million euros by Gazprom ». Result: "The German environmental organizations WWF, Bund and Nabu have for years become strenuous opponents of civil nuclear energy and the exploitation of shale gas in Europe, but not Russian gas." The French newspaper comments: «The European soil is full of shale gas and the exploitation of these gas reserves would have reduced Europe's purchases and dependence on Russian gas, that is to say on Gazprom. The same goes for nuclear energy, which offers abundant energy, does not emit CO2 and is an alternative to Russian gas ». Nice words, but belated: against all evidence, the Greens in Germany have won, German nuclear power plants have been shut down and shale gas is taboo. Putin's, no.
The case of Belgium is sensational. The current Minister of Energy, Mrs. Tinne Van der Straeten, of the Green Party, before taking office, owned 50% of a law firm, which had none other than Gazprom among its major clients. "When she became Minister of Energy", writes Contrepoints, "" Van der Straeten worked on the complete dismantling of the Belgian civil nuclear park, in accordance with the iron will of the Belgian environmentalists, who for twenty years fought to replace it with gas power plants, powered by Gazprom. Still, in Belgium, the green parties Ecolo and Groen explicitly support the replacement of nuclear reactors with gas-fired power plants ”.
(Extract from an article published on ItaliaOggi ; here the full version)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/gazprom-ambientalisti-no-nucleare/ on Sat, 19 Mar 2022 07:21:32 +0000.