The struggle for control of TNK-BP is ripping apart the company, according to Robert Dudley, the chief executive of BP's Russian affiliate, who was yesterday sued for discrimination by 16 of his Russian staff.

The growing dispute between BP and its Russian partners, the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium, threatened to pitch TNK-BP into chaos when the company's senior legal officer, Elvardi Stafilov, launched a legal action challenging the employment contract of Mr Dudley.

The case brought by Mr Stafilov and 15 other Russian employees accuses Mr Dudley of mismanaging the company and discriminating against its Russian employees on grounds of nationality.

The outbreak of open warfare within the company's top management comes after a campaign by the AAR partners, Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik, to unseat Mr Dudley and remove BP secondees from TNK-BP.

Mr Dudley said that the legal action was cynical and aimed at destroying TNK-BP. “These claims will tear the company apart,” he said.

Behind a public dispute over visas and jobs lie deeper disagreements between BP and AAR. The Russian shareholders are thought to be displeased by a decline in dividends paid by TNK-BP, which reflects the British company's preference for investment over the distribution of surplus cash.

Investment at TNK-BP is being boosted to maintain and increase oil output, which would otherwise fall because of the maturing profile of the former Soviet oilfields.

Capital spending has risen from $2.5 billion in 2006 to $3.5 billion in 2007 and BP has proposed to raise it to $4.3 billion in 2008.

The dispute over money erupted at a board meeting last week at which the Russian partners demanded that investment be cut by $800 million and the money paid as a dividend.

TNK-BP paid $3.2 billion to its shareholders in 2006, including a $900 million special payment arising from an asset disposal. Last year it paid $1.3 billion.

Without heavy investment, TNK-BP's oil output will decline, according to BP, which points to its record as the fastest-growing oil producer in Russia.

Russia's weakening output is a factor in the recent surge in oil prices, the International Energy Agency has said.

BP staff under secondment to the Russian joint venture have been denied visas and barred from entering BP's offices in an official campaign, which BP says has been instigated by the AAR consortium to try to gain control of the 50-50 joint venture.

The Russian side accuses BP of mismanagement and poor performance, but Stan Polovets, chief executive of AAR, yesterday said that the consortium was not involved in yesterday's legal action.

Mr Polovets said that Mr Dudley's contract ended late last year and that TNK-BP's management board had not renewed it.

He said: “AAR objected to the extension of the contract because of the underperformance of the business and because of Mr Dudley's insistence on managing the company as a BP subsidiary, not as an independent oil company where BP is a large, but not controlling, shareholder.”

The TNK-BP chief executive denied discriminating against Russians and said that he believed that some Russian investors were behind yesterday's legal action.

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