Oligarch accuses BP boss of ‘Nazi’ tactics

British Petroleum's chairman, Peter Sutherland (pictured), has been accused by the Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman of using Nazi-style tactics in order to gain the upper hand in the bitter duel to control TNK-BP, the Siberian oil joint venture owned 50-50 by BP and the Russian consortium founded by Fridman, AAR (Alfa Access Renova).

Fridman, who is one of the 50 richest men in the world according to Forbes magazine, likened the BP boss to Hitler's notorious propaganda chief, Josef Goebbels, in an interview published in the Russian newspaper, Vedemosti.

The Russian's outburst represents a sharp escalation in AAR's bid to gain control of TNK-BP, which produces about 1.5m barrels of crude oil per day. It is Russia's third largest oil producer and accounts for 25 per cent of BP's output.

Fridman's Nazi jibe was a response to comments made last week by Sutherland, a 62-year-old Irishman who likened his Russian partners' behaviour to that of corporate raiders. This was tough talk. Russians, especially those who amassed their fortunes in the gold rush of the 1990s and have now gone respectable, do not like to be linked with this lawless period of Russian history.

Fridman is one of three tycoons, including Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg, who control AAR. In a separate interview in Kommersant, another Russian newspaper, Vekselberg described the argument thus: "There is a conflict going on... There are basically military actions going on here. What's happening is a madhouse."