There are two ways for the west’s oilmen to exit Russia. The Robert Dudley route: by the backdoor, pursued by bear, for an exile’s existence “Somewhere in Central Europe”. Or the Peter Levine route: via the red carpet, with £90m of spending money, for the riviera of your choice.

Yet the trajectory of Imperial Energy, founded by Mr Levine, is not a straight line from Aim to fortune. Less than a year ago, a fierce stand-off with the Russian regulator was followed by an approach from Gazprom to buy a minority stake. At the time, you might even have bet that Mr Levine’s fate would match that of TNK-BP’s Mr Dudley, condemned by a politicised power struggle to run the company from a secret location.