Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin is gunning for Western energy again. On Wednesday, the Federal Security Service raided the Moscow offices of BP and tnk-bp, a joint venture with Russian oil interests formed in 2003. Agents seized documents and questioned managers while the Interior Ministry gave conflicting reasons as to why the raids were taking place, a sign that the Kremlin is behind the job.

The next day, fsb officers arrested Ilya Saslavsky, a tnk-bp employee, and his brother Aleksandr, both dual citizens of Russia and the United States. Aleksandr is the head of the Alumni Club in Moscow, part of the British Council, the epicenter of a recent quarrel between London and Moscow.

The fsb, the main successor agency to the kgb, said it found “copies of documents issued by Russian state and executive agencies, reports, analytical materials,” and “business cards of representatives of foreign defense departments and the Central Intelligence Agency.” The agency accused the brothers of “industrial espionage” for foreign energy companies.

Reuters reported a “high-level industry source” as saying, “Everyone will perceive these searches as a start of a large-scale campaign against the shareholders. And I would not disagree with this.”

Alex Turkeltaub, managing director for a U.S.-based risk consultancy, expressed what many believe: “The least likely version is that they were actually engaged in economic espionage.”

The raid and arrests are the most recent example of Moscow pressuring foreign gas and oil companies as it re-takes state control of its energy interests, a tool it has wielded as a powerful geopolitical weapon in the past. This specific move could be targeted at pushing BP into lowering its price for the Kovykta gas field or opening up some of its assets for purchase by Rosneft, another state energy corporation. The International Herald Tribunereports that Gazprom is looking to buy out the Russian half of tnk-bp itself.

Outright Kremlin bullying of energy companies has become more and more blatant in recent years. State interests have investigated foreign energy companies; seized documents; trumped up environmental and economic charges; indicted, arrested and imprisoned officials; and snapped up company assets on the cheap. This serves as just another example of Russia’s reversion to totalitarian principles and power politics under Putin’s administration. As energy becomes an increasingly hot commodity and control of it becomes a more powerful geopolitical weapon, watch for Russia to become even more of a power player. For more on this subject, read, “Kremlin Consolidates More Power” and “The Battleground.”