Only in Russia can state-controlled oil company executives buy stock in the firm with money borrowed from a bank whose capital is largely generated by the country’s state-controlled natural gas company. That would never fly in the US. Remember the controversy about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton relationship?

The Moscow Times reports:

A recent 3.1 billion rubles ($93.4 million) purchase of Rosneft stock by a group of 15 of the state oil corporation’s top managers including CEO Igor Sechin was done using funds borrowed from Gazprombank, a news report said Thursday.