Approval by the Russian natural resources ministry for Shell's liquefied natural gas project on Sakhalin island, in the far east of the country, was abruptly withdrawn last Monday on environmental grounds...The authorities also targeted the US oil group ExxonMobil, which runs Sakhalin-1 on the island, late last week, saying they would not allow it to expand the project. Campaigners from the Bankwatch group, a network of environmental groups in 11 countries, say Russia was right to stop environmental and other abuses at Sakhalin which had been going on for far too long...Bankwatch believes Russia has been wrongly characterised in the reports of the standoff with Shell. It notes that the government demanded that one of its own oil companies, Transneft, reroute a vital pipeline to avoid environmental degradation near Lake Baikal at a $1bn cost...Shell would not comment.