Russian spy charges for U.S.-linked brothers

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian authorities have charged two brothers who have dual Russian-U.S. citizenship with industrial espionage, accusing them of illegally gathering information for foreign oil and gas companies.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed the charges late Thursday against Alexander and I. Zaslavsky.

I. Zaslavsky, for whom a first name was not given, is an employee of TNK-BP, a Russian oil company formed in 2003 with the merger of BP and Russia's Alfa and Access/Renova groups, the FSB said.

Both brothers belong to the British Alumni Club for Russian nationals who have studied in Britain, according to the British Council, a cultural organization that established the club a decade ago.

In a statement to the Interfax news agency, the FSB said the men were gathering confidential commercial information for foreign oil and gas companies that would have given them "specific advantages" over their Russian counterparts.

It said the brothers were arrested March 12 as they attempted to obtain the information from an employee of one of the Russian state-owned oil and gas companies.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said Friday that it had seen press reports about the brothers' arrests and was working to confirm the information.

Russian authorities said the arrests were not part of recent diplomatic disputes with Britain.

"This situation is in the authority of law enforcement bodies and has nothing to do with the work of the foreign ministry," the Russian Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department told Interfax on Friday. "It is not related with the current situation in Russian-British relations."

TNK-BP said Friday it had not violated any Russian laws.

"TNK-BP is a good Russian company, and we as a company have always worked within a framework and do work within a framework of Russian legislation," spokeswoman Marina Dracheva told CNN.

"We have never countenanced or supported any actions running counter (to) or violating Russian legislation or fair business practices, so we are fully cooperating with the authorities."

The diplomatic disputes began in late 2006 with the death in London of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko. After British authorities accused Russia of involvement in his poisoning, the two countries expelled each other's diplomats, and Russia threatened to pull a major exhibition of Russian art from London.

The British Council was caught up in the dispute in January. It accused Russian authorities of a "campaign of intimidation" for briefly detaining the head of its St. Petersburg office and summoning local staff for interviews.

The Council said neither brother was a member of its staff. E-mail to a friend