TNK-BP cancelled a board meeting in Cyprus on Thursday after BP refused to countenance a motion by the investors' group AlfaAccessRenova (AAR) for the removal of Robert Dudley, the BP executive who has run the company since it was formed in 2003. AAR said that Mr Dudley, "should resign his position due to AAR's belief that [he] is managing the company in the interest of only one shareholder, namely BP". AAR owns 50 per cent of TNK-BP and is controlled by the oligarchs Viktor Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman and Len Blavatnik, who had handpicked Mr Vermeulen for the board.