MOSCOW - Russian prosecutors launched an inquiry Friday into the leaking of state secrets to TNK-BP, Russia's third biggest oil company, the prosecutor's office said.
The criminal inquiry is against "officials from the Russian Federation's government apparatus who illegally gave a TNK-BP company representative photocopies with confidential information," the office said in a statement.
The information "could be used against the strategic interests of the state in the sphere of energy" and could weaken Russia's "position on global markets and the country's energy and economic security," the statement said.
The leaking of state secrets in Russia carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. TNK-BP has had problems with the law before, which restricts access to information about Russian oil reserves to foreigners.
Reacting to the announcement, a TNK-BP spokesman told Moscow Echo radio station that the company "knows nothing" about the involvement of any of its employees in the case.
TNK-BP was formed in 2003 as a merger between the Russian assets of BP and Russian group Alfa Access Renova -- a deal praised as heralding a new era in foreign investment in Russia's energy sector.
10/20/2006 17:35 GMT