Business stoppage on relations with Russia: "Many are now reconsidering their attitudes"

The oil giant British Petroleum's (BP) close but controversial relationship with Russia, Vladimir Putin and several oligarchs lasted for over 30 years.

The investment was by far the company's by far the most profitable ever.

And despite the record write-down after the invasion, business has been profitable.

Carl-Henrik Svanberg has been called the Swedish Stock Exchange King and the most powerful in the business community after, among other things, the position of CEO of the telecom company Ericsson and the current assignment as Chairman of the Board of the truck manufacturer AB Volvo.

Carl Henric Svanberg became chairman of the board of the oil company BP in 2010.

BP was one of the first large companies in the West to establish itself in Russia.

In 1990, a Moscow office was opened.

In 2003, BP invested approximately SEK 80 billion in the jointly owned company TNK with the Russian Putin-based oligarch Mikhail Friedman and two other oligarchs.

The investment was the largest foreign ever made in Russia.

"BP must respond"

In 2013, BP sold its share in TNK to the Kremlin-controlled oil company Rosneft, in exchange for which they received SEK 120 billion in cash and almost 20 percent of the shares in the company.

The following year, the United States put Rosneft on sanctions lists after Russia's invasion of the Crimean peninsula.

However, BP chose to keep its investment.

In connection with a foreign trade seminar at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in April, SVT received an exclusive interview with Svanberg.

After the Ukraine invasion in 2014 - did you think about the company withdrawing even then?

- There was a discussion many times about it.

It was a position that BP had and it is BP that has to answer that, but it is not always so easy to get out of a position.

You can always discuss whether you should go in, but when you sit with it, you still want to try to make something sensible out of it, says Carl-Henric Svanberg.

"Many reconsider attitudes"

Have you reflected on the fact that several people close to Yeltsin and Putin with whom BP collaborated became incredibly wealthy during the rapid privatization of, among other things, oil?

- It is an oil, gas and mineral land.

And then I can have no opinion on how the development has gone politically.

It is a tragic war and what is happening now is absolutely terrible.

And that, of course, means that many are now reconsidering their approaches.

There has been time from time to time where it has been hoped that Russia would open looks more to the West, and there were probably such thoughts, for quite some time, but it does not look like that anymore.

It has emerged that many of the oligarchs manage a large part of Putin's fortune.

Money that may have ended up in BP as a result of the collaboration.

How do you look at it?

- I know nothing about that, says Carl-Henric Svanberg.