 North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?
US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty Anti-Empire >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
Trudeau?s Prorogation of Parliament is a Mistake He Must Be Allowed to Make Fri Jan 10, 2025 13:18 | Dr James Allan
Justin Trudeau wants to prorogue Parliament to buy time before the election. Voters will punish him for it, says Prof James Allan, but it's a mistake he must be allowed to make without activist judges getting in the way.
The post Trudeau’s Prorogation of Parliament is a Mistake He Must Be Allowed to Make appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Significance of Jordan Peterson Fri Jan 10, 2025 11:00 | James Alexander
Jordan Peterson should make his mind up about Christianity, critics say. Prof James Alexander disagrees: he's a profound Jungian explorer who wants to help a secularised world see why Christianity still matters.
The post The Significance of Jordan Peterson appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Massive Recovery in Antarctica Sea Ice Unreported by Net Zero-Obsessed Mainstream Media Fri Jan 10, 2025 09:00 | Chris Morrison
There's been a massive recovery in Antarctica sea ice this year. But you won't hear about it in our Net Zero-obsessed mainstream media, says Chris Morrison.
The post Massive Recovery in Antarctica Sea Ice Unreported by Net Zero-Obsessed Mainstream Media appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
In Episode 25 of the Sceptic: Mike Jones on the Pakistani Rape Gangs, Poppy Coburn on Why It?s a Rac... Fri Jan 10, 2025 07:00 | Richard Eldred
In episode 25 of the sceptic: Dr Mike Jones on the Pakistani rape gangs, Poppy Coburn on why it's a race hate scandal and Ben Pile on the fall of ESG.
The post In Episode 25 of the Sceptic: Mike Jones on the Pakistani Rape Gangs, Poppy Coburn on Why It?s a Race Hate Scandal and Ben Pile On the Fall of ESG appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Fri Jan 10, 2025 01:00 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
After Iraq, Libya, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, the Pentagon attacks Yemen, by Thier... Tue Jan 07, 2025 06:58 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en
Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en
Resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism Tue Dec 17, 2024 11:08 | en
How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
It wasn't fifty million dollars, and no one can say for sure it was Shell
 international |
environment |
other press
 Friday August 10, 2007 20:48 by Moscow News Reader
Bribery offer linked to Sakhalin project
In a story from the Moscow News today, the deputy head of Russia's environmental agency denied that Shell had tried to bribe him by offering him fifty million dollars.
He wanted to state clearly that he couldn't say for sure that it was Shell, only that "someone" had tried to arrange a meeting with him in Switzerland to discuss the possibility of suspending enviromental checks on the Sakhalin project. No actual amount of money was mentioned either. So that's clear then.
It all brings to mind our own Frank Fahy, a former teacher who has managed to amass a huge property portfolio. Didn't Frank have some Moscow links of his own at one stage? see also www.indymedia.ie/article/76360
 Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Russia's osprirodnadzor environmental watchdog denied Thursday that he'd been offered a $50-million kickback by oil major Shell in exchange for halting environmental checks at the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 offshore oil and gas project in Russia's Far East.
"I received no letter from Shell offering a $50-million bribe," Mitvol told RIA Novosti.
On Thursday, Moscow's Tvoi den tabloid carried an interview with Mitvol quoting him as saying that he had been approached by Shell and offered the money to suspend the checks.
The official did admit, though, that he had been approached by some middlemen, "but definitely not Shell" with a proposal "to meet in Switzerland" and discuss the issue.
The actual amount of money was never mentioned, he added.
"Why should I have asked how much they were ready to offer if I wasn't going to take any of it?" the official said.
The official added that he had tried to explain to the author of the article that Shell was not involved in offering a bribe, but "apparently, the desire to write something sensational was stronger than the desire to write the truth."
Mitvol also said that the project operator, Sakhalin Energy, did make an attractive job offer to a member of the inspection team, an employee of Russia's Natural Resources Ministry.
The offer included a $30,000 monthly salary and authorization to run a $1.8 million budget for an advertising project. According to Mitvol, the employee, who's making 40,000 rubles (slightly over $1,500) a month in his current job, rejected the offer.
Following a series of tough environmental checks and constant pressure from authorities, Shell and project co-owners Mitsui and Mitsubishi agreed in April to cede parts of their stakes in Sakhalin Energy to gas giant Gazprom, which eventually took control of the project as the majority shareholder.
Moscow News
|
printable version
Digg this
del.icio.us
Furl
Reddit
Technorati
Facebook
Gab
Twitter
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 3 2 1they probrably did!
Fifty million dollars.
They could have bought twenty mayo county councils for that.
Here's his wikipedia stub - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Mitvol wherein you will note the name of Boris (indymedia regulars will recall the problems bzzting Boris).
You can't really make up your mind on the Sakhalin projects or Mitvol or Shell's role in the same without learning a little bit about them - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin-II
At first Mitvol built a reputation for being just the sort of tough environmental cookie sensible people dream about on the Irish scene. A man who used his ministerial powers to bring surprise visits and inspections on environmentally damaging industrial activity (noting that the mid Asia region which was once united under the Soviet system is the most scarred human activity section of the planet). But that could have been just fluff - what is interesting is his attack on the billionaire suburbs of Moscow, which are legendary for their recently erected mansions and dachas and palaces none of which keep "equilibrium" with the surrounds.
some bits of Mitvol's career from the very same news-organisation (Moscow news) which the contributor above ave the impression they are a close reader of :-
Textbook Case
When Gazprom first said it wanted a stake, it could not reach agreement with Shell on a price. That is when Oleg Mitvol, the head of the Natural Resources ...
www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/12/20/007.html
Mitvol Tries to Allay Investors' Fears
Government environmental inspector Oleg Mitvol attempted to allay investors' concerns Tuesday, insisting his investigation into Shell's Sakhalin-2 project ...
www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/11/15/041.html
Mitvol Stops Construction Work at Moskva-City
As if taking on Shell, Alla Pugachyova and Moscow region Governor Boris Gromov was not enough, government inspector Oleg Mitvol has now trained his sights ...
www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/07/10/058.html
Mitvol Trashes Sakhalin Ecology Plan
The government may sue the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 group in international courts to ... Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the Federal Service for the Inspection of ...
www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/11/13/041.html
Shell succumbed to months of creeping state pressure on Monday, ... Oleg Mitvol loves to grab the headlines. He barges onto private oil fields unannounced, ...
www.themoscowtimes.com/indexes/2006/12/12/01.html
Mitvol's Agency Hit by Infighting
... oil firms such as Shell, dissolved into infighting between officials Friday, ... Oleg Mitvol, the outspoken deputy head of the ministry's environmental ...
www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/12/11/045.html
_____________________________________
Recently we had news of grass-root opposition to high pollution stake development in the "far north east" of the Russian state as Nazi's thought by some to be hirelings of the Russian state killed an anarchist environmentalist- http://indymedia.ie/article/83558