Eastern Approaches

LONDON - Imagine BP spilling oil in Russian waters. Imagine Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime-minister, castigating BP, launching criminal probes into its conduct and driving its share price down. Imagine too Russian TV channels using this to whip up an anti-Western hysteria and BP’s petrol stations being vandalised in Moscow. Far-fetched? Not really. But imagine the storm of Western criticism that would result. David Cameron would be making public statement about the abuse of foreign investors in Russia. Barack Obama would be on the phone to Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, saying that attack on BP contradicts the spirit of the reset. The media would be calling an attack on BP “politically driven”.

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