In a week where Malaysia's Petronas' buyout bid for Calgary-based Progress Energy was rejected by the Canadian government, and the rejection called "resource nationalism" by Fitch ratings, Rosneft's buyout of TMK-BP is seen as Vladimir Putin's vehicle to regain state ownership of Russia's oil fields. Rosneft was firstly handed control over Yukos Oil in 2003, by Putin's government hitting Yukos with a $26-billion tax bill which bankrupted it, followed by Putin's bundling of Yukos founder, the billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, into a Siberian prison. The present buyout of TNK-BP has Rosneft acquiring BP's 50% stake of the joint venture in exchange for cash and stock, for $27 billion.
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