Russia Arrests 3 - Russia arrests 2 US-Russian citizens; TNK BP statement; STILLS
NAME: RUS ARRESTS 3 20080320I
TAPE: EF08/0305
IN_TIME: 10:42:38:24
DURATION: 00:02:58:10
SOURCES: AP TELEVISION/RTR/AP Photos
DATELINE: Moscow, 20 March 2008/File
RESTRICTIONS: See Script
SHOTLIST
AP Television
1. Wide exterior of FSB (Russian Security Service) headquarters
2. Close up computer monitor FSB web-site
RU-RTR- No Access Russia
3. Alexander Zaslavsky, one of the two brothers detained, giving his name to investigators
4. Close of Alexander Zaslavsky, tilt down to hands
5. Close of investigators hands checking papers, filling in form
6. Investigator searching bag
7. Investigator checking papers
8. Various of search
AP Television
++NIGHT SHOTS++
9. Wide exterior of TNK-BP Headquarters
10. TNK-BP company spokesman Alexander Mikaelyants coming out of door
11. Cutaway of TNK-BP emblem
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexander Mikaelyants, TNK-BP company spokesman, reading from a statement:
"TNK-BP is a commercial organisation engaged in normal and legitimate commercial activities. We are a Russian company and we work successfully on a fair, commercial basis with many other Russian companies, both state and privately owned. We operate strictly within the Russian legal framework and we do not condone any illegal activities, nor do we rely on unfair competitive practices."
13. Cutaway of Mikaelyants holding statement
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexander Mikaelyants, TNK-BP company spokesman, reading from a statement:
"The company has never supported any action designed to contradict or damage the interests of Russia. We will continue to cooperate with Russian authorities to resolve any current issues using the established Russian processes and meanwhile, the company continues to operate and conduct its business activities as usual."
15. TNK-BP building
AP Photos - No Access Canada/For Broadcast use only - Strictly No Access Online or Mobile ++NO SALES++
Date unknown
16. STILL: This undated image obtained from a Facebook webpage shows a man identified as Alexander Zaslavsky, one of two brothers charged of gathering secret information by Russia.
17. STILL: This undated image obtained from a Facebook webpage shows a man identified as Ilya Zaslavsky, one of two brothers charged of gathering secret information by Russia.
STORYLINE
Russia has charged two brothers with dual Russian-U.S. citizenship on charges of gathering secret information aimed at giving foreign oil companies a competitive advantage, the Federal Security Service said Thursday.
The Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency known under its Russian acronym FSB, said Thursday the two men were detained on March 12 and released the same day on the condition they not leave town.
The service said one of the men was an employee of TNK-BP, a major Russian oil company half-owned by British Petroleum and that the other, his brother, was an employee of the British Council, the overseas cultural arm of the British government.
A British Embassy spokeswoman, however, said the latter man, Alexander Zaslavsky, was not a council employee, but a member of the "Alumni Club," a group set up by the council for Russians who have studied in Britain.
The US Embassy declined to comment.
Police searched the Moscow offices of BP and TNK-BP on Wednesday.
"We do not condone illegal activities nor do we rely on unfair competitive practices," TNK-BP company spokesman Alexander Mikaelyants said, reading from a prepared statement.
"We continue to cooperate with the Russian authorities to resolve any current issues, using the established Russian processes."
He said the company had never supported any action designed to contradict or damage the interests of Russia.
The searches turned up "business cards of representatives of foreign defence departments and the (US) Central Intelligence Agency," according to a statement from the Federal Security Service, or FSB.
It was not clear whether either of the arrested brothers was believed to have foreign intelligence connections.
They were arrested "in an attempt to receive confidential information, commercial secrets, from a Russian citizen" who was an employee of a leading Russian oil company, the FSB said.
The information was intended "for the use of foreign oil and gas companies with the goal of obtaining a concrete advantage over Russian competitors," the FSB said.
The arrests are likely to raise tensions between the Kremlin and Britain and the U.S.
Russian relations with Britain have been especially troubled since the 2006 murder of renegade FSB agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with a rare radioactive substance in London.
Russia has refused to extradite the man identified by Britain as the main suspect in the case, and each country has expelled some of the other's diplomats in connection with the dispute.
Russia ordered the closure of British Council branch offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg this year. The council acts as the British government's cultural arm overseas, but Russia contends it is a commercial operation.
Litvinenko was a close associate of Boris Berezovsky, the Russian tycoon who fled to Britain and received asylum after becoming a Kremlin critic. Russia has repeatedly sought his extradition.
On Thursday, Russia charged Berezovsky in absentia with lying in his claims last year that Russian agents had tried to kill him.
TNK-BP came under massive official pressure last year, when government regulators said it was not meeting production targets at a giant Siberian gas field and threatened to withdraw its license.
The Kremlin has increased pressure on foreign energy companies in recent years as part of its effort to consolidate control over the country's largest and most important hydrocarbon deposits.
BP agreed in June to sell its stake at the Kovykta gas field to state gas monopoly OAO Gazprom, but talks on the price have continued.
Some observers suggested that Wednesday's searches could be part of Gazprom's efforts to pressure the British oil company into lowering the price. It added that another state energy company, OAO Rosneft, could also be interested in buying some of TNK-BP assets.
Searches and the confiscation of documents accompanied a massive government crackdown on the Yukos oil company, which ended with an eight-year prison sentence for its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the transfer of its assets into state hands.