2 U.S.-Russian brothers arrested in Moscow

MOSCOW, March 21 (UPI) -- Two brothers with joint U.S.-Russian citizenship have been arrested in Moscow on industrial espionage charges.

The Federal Security Business charges that Ilya and Alexander Zaslavsky have been passing classified data to foreign companies, the BBC reports.

The brothers also have close ties to British interests in Russia. Ilya is a manager with TNK-BP, a Russian oil company partly owned by the British company BP, while Alexander heads the Moscow Alumni Club of the British Council.

Russian authorities shut down much of the British Council activities last year. The two countries have been at odds over the death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died of plutonium poisoning in London.

The FSB said "material proof confirming the industrial espionage" was discovered Wednesday in a raid on TNK-BP offices.