Brothers jailed for selling Gazprom info

MOSCOW, May 11 (UPI) -- Two brothers were sentenced in a Moscow court, each to one year in prison, for selling commercial secrets from energy giant Gazprom to TNK-BP.

The Tverskoi district court in Moscow sentenced Ilya Zaslavsky, who worked for the British division of TNK-BP's management company, and Alexander Zaslavsky, a member of the British Alumni Club of Russian professionals, to a one-year term for the 2008 crime, Itar-Tass reports.

Both men were arrested by Federal Security Service officials after an employee at an unnamed Russian oil and gas complex relayed the allegations to state authorities.

Relations between Russian business moguls representing TNK-BP and their British counterparts are historically poor.

TNK-BP is one of the largest oil companies in Russia, while Gazprom holds a monopoly over natural gas.

The Russian side of the venture had accused former TNK-BP chief executive Robert Dudley of bias toward BP in a drawn-out dispute. Dudley was ousted from his post in 2008.

Meanwhile, disputes erupted in January 2008 between Moscow and London over alleged harassment by Federal Security Service officials and British Council staff as part of ongoing diplomatic tensions between London and Moscow concerning the death of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in November 2006 from polonium-210 poisoning.