TNK-BP chief executive steps down Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman has resigned as chief executive of Russian oil producer TNK-BP, BP's Russian joint venture, heralding a new crisis in BP's relationship with its Russian oligarch partners. A person close to Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR), the consortium of Russian shareholders, said Mr Fridman had quit due to a "breakdown in governance at TNK-BP." TNK-BP said in a statement that after Mr Fridman's departure, the company will be managed by a "group of executives who hold powers of attorney related to their areas of responsibility." It said AAR shareholders German Khan and Viktor Vekselberg will remain as executive directors and members of the management board. The move came a week after TNK-BP was forced to cancel a board meeting and postpone a decision on a dividend, because the board lacked a quorum. "The Russian shareholders have lost faith in BP as a partner," the person close to AAR said. This partnership appears to have run its course and we are most likely heading towards some kind of disengagement. Mr Fridman has been CEO since a bitter dispute broke out in 2008 between AAR and BP over control of TNK-BP, which ended with the company's then head, Bob Dudley, who is now CEO of BP, being forced to leave Russia. Relations were wracked by a fresh dispute last year when BP announced a strategic alliance with the Russian national oil champion Rosneft. AAR took BP to international arbitration over its claims that the deal with Rosneft, which later collapsed, breached a shareholder agreement granting TNK-BP the right of first refusal to any venture in Russia or Ukraine. BP denies this. An arbitration panel is due to issue its findings later this year. Last December, Gerhard Schroëder, the former German chancellor, and James Leng, former chairman-elect of Rio Tinto, quit TNK-BP's board. The board, which normally meets every quarter, has not met since. The two men left after TNK-BP received independent legal advice recommending it sue BP over the Rosneft deal. BP has nominated a replacement for one of the two - Evert Henkes, a former senior manager at Royal Dutch Shell. But Mr Schroëder, who was chairman, has not yet been replaced. TNK-BP says any decision on declaring and disbursing a first-quarter dividend will have to be postponed until the board is again at full strength.