Their chief executive, Mikhail Fridman, called it quits on Monday.

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The AAR consortium, which includes billionaires Mikhail Fridman, Leonard Blavatnik and Victor Vekselberg, actually has good reason to downplay sensational theories about Russian oil.

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The company is run by Forbes billionaire Mikhail Fridman.

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Norbest, an affiliate of Alpha Access Renova, which is controlled by Russian oligarchs Victor Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman and Leonard Blavatnik, had acquired stakes in the Hawler and Sindi Amedi blocks in 2007.

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Last year, AAR, which is owned by four Russian-born billionaires led by tycoon Mikhail Fridman, was unhappy with BP's attempt to form an exploration alliance with Rosneft and secured a High Court injunction blocking the plan.

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Bernard Sucher, a veteran Russian banker and chairman of Alfa Capital, a unit of Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group, thinks Russian investors' interest in their own bourses is a sign of the development of the country's financial system.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In addition to those cited in this report, the author is particularly grateful for the insights, many of them off the record, of Hal Sirkin, Nandan Nilekani, Alvaro Rodriguez Arragui, Bernard Charles, Joshua Ramo, Michelle Guthrie, Arjun Divecha, Len Blavatnik, Viktor Vekselberg, Malvinder Singh, Bill Ford, Michael Green, Lord John Browne, John Studzinski, Bill Rhodes, Diana Farrell, Mikhail Fridman, Graham Mackey, Thor Bjorgolfsson, Ram Charan, Nabil Habayeb, Diana Glassman, David Rubenstein, Eli Jacobs, Dambisa Moyo, Alastair Newton and Michael Patsalos Fox.

ECONOMIST: Sources and acknowledgments