In America and Europe, environmental movements are fighting against fracking.

In this mining method, water, sand and a cocktail of chemicals are forced into rock strata under great pressure to extract natural gas or crude oil.

Environmental groups fear groundwater contamination, earthquakes and uncontrolled methane emissions into the atmosphere.

But how innocent are they really in their activism?

Winand von Petersdorff-Campen

Economic correspondent in Washington.

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Philip Pickert

Business correspondent based in London.

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Republican Congressman Bill Johnson raised the question in late March in a letter to relevant committees in the House of Representatives.

He called for an investigation into whether Russia funds or otherwise supports anti-fracking environmental groups.

There are indications of that.

Hillary Clinton is causing speculation

Russia expert Fiona Hill, who was deputy security adviser John Bolton under President Donald Trump, provided evidence.

In the congressional hearings on Trump's impeachment, she testified of a special encounter: In 2011, she sat next to Vladimir Putin when he made it clear at a conference that he saw fracking in America as a major threat to American interests: "We were all amazed how much he emphasized that issue,” Hill said.

Since then, Putin has always considered fracking to be an important issue.

The old statement raises suspicions that the Russian dictator had long planned to undermine competition for Russian gas - with propaganda and money.

In the report by American intelligence services to Congress, which described Russia's interference in the American presidential elections, the agents referred to the role played by the Russian propaganda broadcaster RT (Russia Today).

He continually aired programs highlighting the environmental and public health hazards of fracking.

"This probably reflected the Russian government's concerns about the impact of fracking and US gas production on the global energy market and Gazprom's profitability," the report said.

Conservative media in the US have long been investigating the suspicion that Russia is financing enemies of fracking.

The Democrat Hillary Clinton, of all people, provided the material for this speculation.

She gave a speech in Canada in June 2014, an excerpt of which ironically was believed to have been made public by Russian agents as part of the Wikileaks campaign.

As a result, Clinton complained that Russia had founded false environmental groups to combat fracking.

Russia has provided the groups with a lot of money to attack pipelines and fracking.

She wasn't more specific.

No Foreign Grant for Klein Ltd.

In the same year, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also expressed suspicion that Russia was using environmental organizations to increase Europe's dependence on imported gas from Russia.

When asked, Frack Free Lancashire, the largest British protest group, denied ever having received any Russian money.

"We know that Anders Fogh Rasmussen made wild allegations about Russian funding back in 2014," a spokesman said.

But the NATO Secretary General never provided any evidence.