A complaint for complicity in war crimes has been filed in Paris against TotalEnergies, accused of having continued to exploit a deposit in Russia and allowing the manufacture of fuel used by Russian aircraft engaged in the conflict in Ukraine, which the group disputes.
This complaint was filed Thursday with the national anti-terrorist prosecutor, competent for war crimes, by the Bordeaux-based association Darwin Climax Coalition, which says it works for the protection of human rights and the defense of populations affected by industrial predation, and the Ukrainian association Razom we stand, which calls for the imposition of an embargo on fossil fuel imports from Russia.
Contacted by AFP, the French energy giant denounced “outrageous”, “defamatory” and “unfounded” accusations.
The complaint, of which AFP has been informed, recalls that TotalEnergies held until September 49% of the joint venture Terneftegaz, which operates the Termokarstovoye field in Russia’s Far North.
The remaining 51% was held by the Russian group Novatek, the number two in Russian gas, in which TotalEnergies also has a 19.4% stake.
However, according to an article in Le Monde published on August 24, which was based on several documents and an investigation by the NGO Global Witness, the Termokarstovoye gas field supplied gas condensate to a refinery near Omsk in Siberia, which turned it into fuel, which was then shipped to fuel Russian aircraft engaged in the conflict in Ukraine until at least last July
After the publication of the article in Le Monde, the French energy giant, already criticized for its maintenance in Russia, had assured that it did “not produce kerosene for the Russian army”. Two days later, it had indicated that it had agreed on July 18 to sell its 49% stake in Terneftegaz to Novatek. This sale was finalized in September.
– Air strikes –
According to the plaintiffs, “by continuing to exploit the Termokarstovoye field” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, TotalEnergies “contributed to providing the Russian government with the means necessary to commit war crimes” in that country, where the Russian army launched air strikes against civilians.
“The fuel, which is essential for military air operations, was therefore indirectly used by Russia to perpetrate the bombings against the civilian population, which led to the death of at least 5,587 people and injured 7,890″, the plaintiffs believe.
The latter also believe that TotalEnergies could not ignore the strong links of influence between Novatek and the Russian regime: the oligarch Guennadi Timtchenko, a close associate of Vladimir Putin, had to leave the group’s board of directors in March because he was targeted by European sanctions.
Leonid Mikhelson, CEO of Novatek, has been targeted by British sanctions.
“TotalEnergies categorically refutes all of the unfounded allegations made by Global Witness, published by the newspaper Le Monde last August,” the group said on Friday, claiming that the unstable condensates produced by Terneftegaz had been “exported abroad” and therefore could not have been used by the Russian army as fuel for its aircraft.
To be an “accomplice to war crimes” is to provide direct assistance to a state or criminal organization that has committed crimes,” TotalEnergies said. “These accusations are an insult to the integrity of our teams.”
The complaint underlines “the legal evolution of the notion of complicity, which means that large private (and public) actors can be prosecuted (…) even if there is no proof that they share the main perpetrator’s intention”, in this case the Russian army.
“Justice can no longer be blind to the indirect but essential contribution of multinationals to the war effort or to the considerable profits that multinationals continue to make after the invasion of Ukraine,” the associations’ lawyers, William Bourdon, Vincent Brengarth and Henri Thulliez, commented to AFP.
“France cannot both condemn the invasion and remain inactive in the face of the behaviors that sustain it,” they added.
