Korean financial firms lambasted for investing in Russian fossil fuels

Dmytro Vi, a Ukrainian living in Korea, speaks during a protest by a coalition of activists against Korean financial firms' investments in Russian fossil fuels in front of Mirae Asset Global Investments' office building in downtown Seoul, April 6. Courtesy of Solutions for Our Climate

By Ko Dong-hwan

Environmental activists from four organizations on April 6 protested against a group of Korean financial firms for their investments in Russian fossil fuels and financing of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A coalition of activists from Solutions for Our Climate, the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements, Without War and Youth Climate Emergency Action raised their pickets in front of Mirae Asset Global Investments' office building in downtown Seoul.

Mirae Asset, along with Kiwoom Asset Management and the National Pension Service (NPS), has been investing heavily in Russian energy companies that use fossil fuels, according to the activists. The activists claimed that the three firms have also not joined the recent movement by Korean financial firms to refrain from investing further in coal as an energy source, and are thus not participating in the domestic and global efforts to fight the climate crisis.

“It's been over a month since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began,” the activists' joint statement read. “Despite the two countries' repeated talks, merciless violence killing people has been continuing. But some of our domestic financial firms have been investing an incredibly large amount of capital in Russia's fossil fuels, which may be funneled into Russia's invasion of Ukraine.”

International financial entities have been canceling their investments in Russian fossil fuels and reducing their reliance on the country's energy sources amid mounting criticisms that such investments might be helping to finance Russian President Vladimir Putin's much-criticized war in Ukraine, according to the protesters. “Amid this global movement, our financial firms are still allowing investments in Russian fossil fuels,” said the statement.

Solutions for Our Climate shared data with The Korea Times that showed which Russian companies Korean firms have been investing in. It revealed that the top three Korean firms together own over 50 billion won ($41 million) worth of stock in Russian energy companies that use coal, oil and gas.

Mirae Asset owns 13.5 billion won worth of stocks in Severstal and RusHydro, both coal-using companies. The Korean firm also owns stocks in Russian energy companies that use oil and gas, like Gazprom, NK Lukoil and Novatak.

The NPS owns over 10 billion won worth of stocks in Severstal and coal-using power generation company Inter Rao.

Kiwoon has 3.2 billion won worth of stocks in Severstal, Inter Rao and the coal-based power generation company, OGK-2. The Korean firm also partly owns Gazprom, NK Lukoil, NK Rosneft and Novatek.

Hanwha Asset Management, Woori Financial Group, KB Financial Group and Kyobo Axa Investment Managers have also invested in Russian oil and gas companies, according to the data.

Pictured in this image from September 2018 is the Vostochnaya Thermal Power Plant, operated by RAO Energy Systems of the East, part of the RusHydro Group. TASS-Yonhap

“Investing in Russian fossil fuels not only contradicts global efforts to prevent the climate crisis from worsening but also threatens world peace (amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has shocked and outraged many countries) and the energy security of various countries,” the statement read.

The protest came as Russian forces aren't showing any signs of ceasing their attacks on the people and infrastructure of Ukraine. Earlier this week, a mass grave of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians was discovered in Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Ukraine's capital of Kyiv. The evidence of what appears to have been a civilian massacre sparked global outrage, while the Russian government refused to take responsibility for the deaths.

As of April 3, over 1,400 civilians have been killed and over 2,000 injured since Russia started its attack on Ukraine on Feb, 24, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Over 4 million refugees have left Ukraine, with an estimated 6.5 million internally displaced, since the invasion began.

Ukrainians join protest

Dmytro Vi, a Ukrainian who was a lawyer there for over 15 years, joined Wednesday's protest to urge Korea's financial firms to stop investing in Russian energy companies. Vi, who is 41, arrived in Korea four years ago.

According to Vi, Putin's Russia ― a totalitarian country ― is moving toward nationalizing the property of foreign investors, and under such authoritarian rule, the longer Korean investors stay in this country, the greater their losses will be in the future.

“Oil and gas production are the cornerstones of the Russian economy, which in turn are mere devices for the development of the military machine and tools to manipulate the governments of other countries,” said Vi, who works at a transporting unit in a hospital in Daejeon. “Also, purchasing oil, gas and coal in Russia deepens the threat of nuclear war in the world. We all know that there is a direct connection between war and the prices of oil. Russia is a prime example of that.”

Vi said that in the last decades, Russia started military campaigns whenever oil prices rose. He called it “the vicious cycle” of rising prices of oil emboldening Russia to assault neighboring countries and the resulting wars then increasing the price of oil once again.

“I think even oil producers agree that we eventually will give up oil and gas as sources of energy. The only question is when,” Vi said.

“What will come next? Solar power? Wind power? If we have to replace fossil fuels with renewables at some point, why not start with depriving this delusional military aggressor of the tools for waging war? We urgently call for a ban on imports of Russian oil, petroleum products, bitumen, gas, coal and metals from the market of the Republic of Korea,” he stated.