Russia’s reputation as a partner for British businesses suffered a heavy blow last night on Thursday when the embattled chief executive of BP’s oil venture, TNK-BP, left Moscow after an “orchestrated campaign of harassment.”
Robert Dudley has flown out of the country, BP said, and will run the company “temporarily” from outside Russia.
His decision to quit follows weeks of worsening relations with Russian state agencies, which have apparently been acting at the instigation of TNK-BP’s Russian shareholders, who made it clear they wanted Dudley replaced.
Dudley’s visa was due to expire tomorrow, but the federal migration service had refused to renew it and hinted he would be kicked out of the country next week.
In an emotional statement that did little to conceal his bitterness, Dudley, who is American, said the row with his Russian partners, who own 50 percent of TNK-BP, had left him unable to perform his duties.
“In light of the uncertainties surrounding the status of my work visa and the sustained harassment of the company and myself, I have decided to leave and work outside Russia,” he said.
His personal working conditions had become “intolerable,” he said.
BP officials said Dudley had faced an “orchestrated campaign of harassment.”
“That’s the way it’s been,” a spokesman said last night. “It’s been extremely hard for Bob to carry out his duties in a normal way.”
Last night BP said Dudley’s departure did not mean BP was abandoning Russia, a key market in which TNK-BP has made US$4.7 billion profit this year. Dudley had “full authority” and “full power” to carry on as before, it said.
But there is little doubt Dudley’s forced exit is a grievous setback for BP and a triumph for the troubled oil venture’s Russian partners, who have been demanding his removal since May.
Last night, Stan Polovets, spokesman for the Russian partners and the Alfa-Access-Renova consortium that is the holding company for their 50 percent stake, said Dudley’s decision to quit was “not unexpected.”
He said Dudley no longer had a valid labor contract and, under Russian law, would be forced to leave next week.
Polovets said: “We regret that BP and Bob Dudley plan to continue to manage the firm from London.”
“This is a vivid illustration that BP sees TNK-BP as its subsidiary, and is now planning to run it from St James’s Square,” he said.
Polovets rejected accusations that the company’s Russian partners, led by billionaire oligarch Mikhail Fridman, were behind the campaign by Russian state agencies to force BP out.
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