‘Kremlin’s Puppet’ Inks Global Climate Credit Line Deal Hours After Trump Admin Blasts It

The major commodity trading company known as Gunvor announced a $2.395 billion “sustainability-linked, multi-currency revolving credit facility” on Friday, a day after the U.S. Treasury Department blasted the Swiss energy firm as the “Kremlin’s puppet.”

Gunvor Group is “one of the world’s largest independent commodities trading houses by turnover,” according to the company’s website. The Treasury posted on X on Thursday that “the war must end immediately. As long as Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlin’s puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operate and profit.”

Guvnor responded Thursday, branding the statement as “fundamentally misinformed and false” and announcing that it would scrap its reported $22 billion proposal to buy assets from the Russian energy company Lukoil. The group moved ahead on Friday with securing a massive “ESG-linked” credit facility from a consortium of international banks in a move that some energy policy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation represents a dangerous misalignment of climate finance with U.S. strategic interests.

“Gunvor’s ESG credit deal is more than financial hypocrisy, it’s a coordinated attack on America’s economic prosperity. Foreign investment firms are acting like a cartel, using ESG mandates to coerce U.S. companies into the same failed climate agendas that crippled European industry and deepened dependence on Russian energy,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told the DCNF. “The deal rewards a company that the Trump administration rightly called ‘the Kremlin’s puppet’ while punishing American companies who reject ESG dogma. It’s a reminder that ESG was never about the environment, it’s about power.” (RELATED: World’s Largest Banking Climate Coalition Shaken Up Under Trump — But Experts Warn Agenda Could Endure ‘Underground’)

“Gunvor is and has always been open and transparent about its ownership and business, and has for more than a decade actively distanced itself from Russia, stopped trading in line with sanctions, sold off Russian assets, and publicly condemned the war in Ukraine,” the firm said in its Thursday statement. “We welcome the opportunity to ensure this clear misunderstanding is corrected. In the meantime, Gunvor withdraws its proposal for Lukoil’s international assets.”

Gunvor did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Gunvor was co-founded in 2000 by Swedish billionaire Torbjörn Törnqvist and was previously co-owned by Gennady Timchenko, who reportedly had ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, though he sold his stake in 2014.

The firm announced that “thanks to strong support from existing and new banking partners,” the credit facility has “additional liquidity” compared to deals in pastyears.

The company noted that the credit facility will continue to operate with a “comprehensive set” of environmental social governance (ESG)-linked key performance indicators aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which include investing in “renewable and carbon reduction projects” and working to ensure suppliers are complying with human rights.

Banks listed as financing the facility hail from several countries, including China, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, London and others, with Citibank being the only bank headquartered in the U.S.

“The RCF will be used for general corporate purposes, including the refinancing of the existing 🇺🇸US $1,775,000,000 364-day tranche of the 2024 European Revolving Credit Facilities Agreement, and the 🇺🇸US $350,000,000 3-year tranche of the 2023 European Revolving Credit Facilities Agreement,” Guvnor’s release noted. (RELATED: Woke Investing Takes Massive Hit As Investors Lose Interest: REPORT)

Proponents of ESG investing argue that incorporating climate and other sustainability risks can deliver long-term benefits for both investors and companies, while critics contend that ESG may dilute fiduciary responsibility by prioritizing social goals over shareholder interests.

Several energy policy experts told the DCNF that the credit facility may spell bad news for U.S. strategic interests.

Director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute Sterling Burnett told the DCNF that “if these banks and the sovereign countries that license or, in some cases, own them continue down this path, they may be sanctioned by the administration. This is bad for banking, bad for ending Putin’s illegal, immoral, and unjustified war on Ukraine, and in no way benefits transparency, social governance, or the environment, which is what Gunvor is supposed to be all about.”

“The Trump administration maintains that international oil trader Gunvor is ‘Putin’s puppet’ and subject to sanctions,” Steve Milloy, Senior Fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, told the DCNF. “Although Gunvor denies this, it will not be able to deflect the accusation by … embracing the climate scam and claiming to implement ESG policies. Oil industry participation in climate is dishonest greenwashing that reflects poorly on credibility.”

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