Question: Speaking a few days ago in the British parliament on the situation surrounding TNK-BP, Prime Minister Gordon Brown accentuated the importance of the question of non-issuance of visas to the company's British workers, actually laying the blame at the doorstep of Russian authorities for the problems that arose. How could you comment upon these remarks?

Commentary: The attempts to politicize the situation surrounding TNK-BP surprise us. We have repeatedly said that this problem lies exclusively on a plane of relations between business entities. The President of the Russian Federation set out this position to Brown in Toyako, stressing that the Russian authorities were not going to interfere in the corporate dispute between the British and Russian shareholders of TNK-BP.

As to the question of the issuance of visas to British workers of the company, we are acting in strict accordance with Russian legislation. If the documents of the British employees are properly executed, they should have no problems. In Russia, as in the EU, there are the appropriate rules for the issuance of work visas. As far as we know, a part of the TNK-BP workers have already received visas. All the necessary explanations have been given to the British side.

July 15, 2008