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Industrial Spying Charges Deepen Russia-UK Flap

Posted Mar 20, 08 4:43 PM CDT in World 

(Newser) – Two brothers, one with ties to a UK-Russia joint oil venture, have been arrested in Moscow and accused of industrial espionage, the BBC reports. Ilya and Alexander Zaslavsky were charged after yesterday's raid on oil giant TNK-BP, but analysts say Russia's interest in the matter goes beyond spying, as the country angles to re-assert control over its oil industry.

The raid echoes a similar 2003 event, Reuters adds, which eventually led to the destruction of the Yukos oil company. TNK-BP is Russia’s third-largest oil company—and the only one not under the Kremlin's thumb. The arrests have further soured relations between Britain and Russia, under strain since the 2006 murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.

Sources: BBC, Times (UK), Reuters

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An investigator leaves the headquarters of Russian-British joint venture OAO TNK-BP, Russia's third-largest oil producer, in downtown Moscow, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.   (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
This undated image obtained from a MySpace webpage shows a man identified as Ilya Zaslavsky, one of two brothers charged with gathering secret information aimed at giving foreign oil companies a competitive...   (AP Photo)
The Russian citizens arrested for industrial espionage were connected to a British-Russian oil venture.   (www.gazprom.com)
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Russia • arrest • oil production • Alexander Litvinenko • spy • Gazprom • British-Russian relations


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