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#23 - JRL 2008-137 - JRL Home
Russian official says TNK-BP foreign staff's visa problems not political
Interfax

Moscow, 22 July: The leadership of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) of the Russian Federation has said that the visa problems of the foreign employees of TNK-BP have nothing to do with politics.

"There is nothing political in this case," FMS Director Col-Gen Konstantin Romodanovskiy said in an Interfax interview. "There are no visa problems at all. There are disagreements between shareholders, it is a certain internal aspect with which public opinion is being stirred up in an attempt to use some kind of resources and the mass media to tip the scales in one's own favour," he said.

"One should not demand from us an assessment of internal corporate disputes at TNK-BP. The FMS is a law enforcer. If you have a train ticket, we let you in and drive you; if you don't have one, then the doors are closed!" Romodanovskiy said.

Romodanovskiy also said that TNK-BP chief Robert Dudley would be able to receive a working visa in Russia once he had presented a valid employment contract. "If there is an employment contract entitling him to a working visa, there will be no problems. So far no-one's seen this document," he said.

"On 19 July he was given a so-called transit visa. His leave to legally remain in Russia was extended until the end of the month, and during this time he can try and settle his affairs in the company. Yet again we made concessions. No-one, however, has seen his employment contract valid after 1 January 2008," the FMS director said.

Romodanovskiy also said that the main problem was that a group of foreign employees of TNK-BP had been working in Russia on business visas rather than on working ones. "This is a breach of our legislation.

Acting within the bounds of the law, we helped more than 100 foreign employees of TNK-BP to correctly formalize their status in Russia. We helped, even though we could have imposed most serious penalties," he said.

"As regards foreign employees of TNK-BP, we are showing hospitality and trying to help. I do not think that our foreign colleagues would have done the same had Russian citizens found themselves in a similar situation abroad. I am not sure they would have been helped and would have received explanations on how to bring everything in line with the law," the FMS director said.

Read the full version of Romodanovskiy's interview on the Interfax website and in the 23 July edition of the Vremya Novostey newspaper.