BP has for the first time openly criticised the Russian Government for its failure to intervene in the escalating dispute with its TNK-BP joint venture partners.

The group’s chairman, Peter Sutherland, yesterday accused the country’s leadership of being “unwilling or unable” to protect the company during what he described as a raid on TNK-BP, Russia’s third-biggest crude producer.

Speaking to an International Chamber of Commerce world business summit in Stockholm, Mr Sutherland said: “This is just a return to the corporate raiding activities that were prevalent in Russia in the 1990s . . . Prime Minister Putin has referred to these tactics as relics of the 1990s, but unfortunately our partners continue to use them. The leaders of the country seem unwilling or unable to step in and stop them. This is bad for us, bad for the company and of course, very bad for Russia.”

But Viktor Vekselberg, one of three Russian billionaires who control 50 per cent of TNK-BP, was quick to hit back, describing Mr Sutherland’s comments as offensive.

Mikhail Fridman, his partner, added that it was “insulting to the Russian leadership”.

Mr Vekselberg denied persistent claims that he, Mr Fridman and Len Blavatnik, the third Russian billionaire, were preparing to sell their stake to a Russian state-controlled company such as Gazprom, insisting that they had received no such offers to do so.

However, he added that the shareholders were prepared to look “in the long run” at the possibility of swapping their stake in TNK-BP for equity in BP. He added that no talks were under way on an immediate equity swap and insisted that they had no intentions of selling out.

The row between BP and its partners reached a climax this week when the Russians threatened to sue the British oil giant in their row over ownership. They plan to ask a Russian court to strip BP nominees of their powers for holding an allegedly illegal board meeting.

In recent weeks, they have also sought to remove Bob Dudley, TNK-BP’s US chief executive, and also failed to attend a meeting in Cyprus.

The billionaires – who hold their stake via the investment vehicle Alfa-Access-Renova consortium (AAR) – claimed that BP had urged them to sell their stake in TNK-BP, which made net profits of $5.3 billion (£2.7 billion) last year.

However, BP officials have denied this and argued that the billionaires had asked BP to acquire their stake.

BP paid its partners $6.75 billion for a 50 per cent stake when TNK-BP was created in 2003 in what was then the largest foreign investment in Russia.

Speaking in London this week, Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, said that talks were continuing but that he was not expecting an early resolution of a “complicated situation”.

The dispute is being viewed by many as a key test of Russia’s willingness to allow foreign investment in its oil sector, an industry the Kremlin has in recent years sought to dominate.

TNK-BP, created in 2003, employs 65,000 people, operates 1,600 filling stations and has access to vast reserves in Siberia. In 2005 its average gross daily production was 1.82 million barrels a day.

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