Any Other Business | 16 August 2008

Does Medvedev really believe in the rule of law? The fate of TNK-BP is the test

Is President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia — who looks and sounds like a liberal-leaning modern technocrat — really his own man, or is he merely the stooge of his predecessor, the sinister, warmongering Vladimir Putin? The mad situation engulfing BP’s Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, is surely the test of this question. Its BP-appointed chief executive, Robert Dudley, has met such hostility from the gang of oligarchs who are BP’s partners in the company that he is now trying to run it by email from a secret address somewhere in eastern Europe. The oligarchs, led by the combative multibillionaire Mikhail Fridman, claim BP has managed TNK-BP (which accounts for a quarter of total BP oil production) more like a subsidiary than an independent venture, refusing to let it pursue opportunities where it might cross other BP interests.