Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, yesterday came away empty handed after "very frank" talks with Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian pre-sident, over the treatment of foreign staff working in the $38bn (£19bn, €24bn) TNK-BP joint oil venture.

Mr Brown -was also given short shrift by Mr Medvedev in their first meeting after he tackled two other issues which have dogged British relations with Russia: the murder of Alexander Lit-vinenko and the closure of two British Council offices.