BP Urged to Cut Ties with Russian Oil Giant as Whitehall Voices ‘Concern’

FTSE 100 company’s stake in Rosneft comes under more pressure as European Council said to be lining up a third tranche of Moscow sanctions

Ben Keith comments in The Telegraph on 26 February 2022

The Telegraph article sets out how BP was summoned by Whitehall to explain its multibillion-pound investment in Rosneft, the Russian state energy company fuelling the trucks and tanks entering Ukraine during the ongoing conflict. Regarding the UK’s escalation of sanctions against the Kremlin’s leadership, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had told MPs that officials are having to make sure their sanctions against oligarchs are “legally watertight” to prevent them being challenged by their lawyers.

Ben Keith, of IHR-Advisors, is quoted disputing suggestions that City law firms would have any ability to prevent the UK Government from imposing sanctions on Russian oligarchs:

“In my opinion, this could only be sabre rattling from lawyers acting in the interests of their Russian clients, because it is difficult to see how they can make any difference legally to the imposition of sanctions. If later on they want to appeal against them or to vary the sanctions then there are mechanisms to do that. But I cannot understand how letters from law firms could be delaying the imposition of sanctions by the Foreign Office.”

To read the full Telegraph article, published on 26 February 2022, click here (behind a paywall).