On the corporate front, BP plc finally bowed to pressure from its Russian partners in oil joint venture TNK-BP Ltd. by agreeing to replace Robert Dudley with a Russian-speaking CEO. Dudley's ouster was part of a board overhaul at the venture.
From the media came grim word that one journalist was shot to death and another hospitalized with a fractured skull in separate attacks in Russia's Caucasus region. The violence follows the recent news that an owner of an opposition Web site was shot in the head by police. The Kremlin said the killing was an accident, while The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called it an "assassination."
Companies with existing or prospective investments in the oil-rich power will make their own judgments about what the incidents portend for foreign investors in Russia. - Barbara Rudolph
