Campaign against Vinci’s participation in Moscow St. Petersburg motorway project launched

While much of the debate around the Moscow St. Petersburg motorway project has centred around the behaviour of the Russian authorities, the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest is now targeting French construction giant Vinci and asking the company not to sign an additional agreement with the Russian authorities, expected in mid-April.

A coalition of Russian NGOs has also written a letter (pdf) to the company to ask it once more not to participate in the project and warning it of its complicity in human rights abuses.

Vinci has also been accused by the group of failing to adhere to its UN Global Compact commitments. In a letter (pdf) to the Global Compact secretariat the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest and Bankwatch outline how the company has violated 3 of the 10 Global Compact principles, on promoting human rights, avoiding complicity in human rights abuses, and supporting a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.

Vinci has not only failed to condemn the human rights abuses committed against opponents of the project’s current routing, but Louis-Roch Burgard, CEO of Vinci Concessions has openly said he does not care: We are dealing with tens of projects in France, Europe and throughout the world and sometimes some projects face opposition. It is not the source of concern for us, otherwise we should be changing business.”

When President Medvedev last year suspended tree felling works, the company even lobbied via the French Chamber of Commerce to move ahead with the construction as soon as possible a move which it must have known would result in further violence towards activists.

In an interview he gave Bankwatch on the occasion of the EU-Russia civil society forum in Prague, Jaroslav Nikitenko from the Movement to defend Khimki forest describes the harassment and intimidation Muscovite activists have faced in their campaign to protect the Khimki forest: