2 dual U.S.-Russian citizens accused of trying to undermine oil market

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MOSCOW — Russia has charged two brothers with dual Russian-U.S. citizenship on charges of gathering secret information aimed at giving foreign oil companies a competitive advantage, the Federal Security Service said Thursday.

The service said one of the men was an employee of TNK-BP, a major Russian oil company half-owned by British Petroleum and that the other, his brother, was an employee of the British Council, the overseas cultural arm of the British government.

A spokeswoman for the British Embassy in Moscow, however, said the latter man, Alexander Zaslavsky, was not a council employee but a member of the “Alumni Club,” a group set up by the council for Russians who have studied in the United Kingdom.

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Russia this year ordered the closure of British Council branch offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. The council acts as the British government’s cultural arm overseas, but Russia contends it is a commercial operation.

Detroit FreePress