Len Blavatnik

Len Blavatnik was born in Russia and lives in New York and London. According to Forbes, the industrialist is the 113th richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of $8billion (£3.7billion).

After studying at the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute, he emigrated to the US in 1978. He received a masters in computer science from Columbia University and, later, an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1986 he founded Access Industries, an international industrial group based in New York, becoming chairman and president.

With Viktor Vekselberg he formed the Renova investment vehicle. The two then joined forces with Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group to form the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) venture. AAR took a controlling stake in TNK, which then formed a joint venture with BP.

Viktor Vekselberg

Viktor Vekselberg was born in the town of Drogobych in the Lvov region of Ukraine. He is the owner and president of Renova Group, the Russian conglomerate. According to Forbes, his estimated wealth is more than $11billion.

He graduated from the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute in 1979 and became chairman of Renova, the Russian investment and business development company, in 1993.

After Boris Yeltsin's re-election as Russian President in 1996, Mr Vekselberg became increasingly influential as co-owner and chairman of Tyumen Oil (TNK) and, after taking a controlling interest in 1997, he subsequently developed the joint venture with BP.

Discussing the fight for TNK-BP he said: “There are basically military actions going on here. What's happening is a madhouse.”

Mikhail Fridman

Mikhail Fridman entered the business world by cleaning windows in Ukraine with help from his university friend German Khan, now an executive director of TNK-BP. Together with Mr Khan and Alexei Kuzmichov, another university friend, he formed Alfa Group in 1999. He is 20th richest man in the world, worth $20.8 billion according to Forbes.

Today Alfa has oil, retail, telecom and banking interests with strong connections to the Kremlin. Mr Fridman, 44, has been described as having a “cherubic smile” and outward charm.

He has said he believes the corporate war at TNK-BP was an attempt by BP to squeeze him and his Russian partners out with the help of Gazprom but he has suggested that the oligarchs won't sell out yet. “I'm prepared to make a bet. Gazprom and Rosneft will not buy these shares within, let's say, two years,” he said.

Robert Dudley

Robert Dudley has been chief executive of TNK-BP since the company was formed in 2003. Mr Dudley, universally known as Bob, has had to fend off repeated attempts to force his resignation by the Russian shareholders in the venture.

So far BP has resisted all such calls, defending Mr Dudley, who joined the company when it merged with Amoco in 1998.

Prior to his current role at TNK-BP, he served as group vice-president responsible for BP's upstream businesses in Angola, Egypt, Russia, the Caspian Region and Algeria.

He was previously group vice-president for BP's renewables and alternative energy activities with responsibility for BP's global solar business, wind and hydrogen activities.

He holds a number of degrees including one in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois.

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