Rosprirodnadzor will check Samotlorneftegaz, a subsidiary that operates in Western Siberia, along with six other companies, for environmental violations according to a statement on the agency's website.

The inspections are set to take place in March and April.

Security services raided the offices of Russian-British energy giant TNK-BP and BP in Moscow on Wednesday in a move, analysts say, that may be aimed at persuading the foreign owners of TNK-BP to sell up to gas giant Gazprom.

Two British-educated men -- one a TNK-BP employee -- have been charged with industrial espionage.

However, the environmental checks were arranged last year, Oleg Mitvol, the deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor, told AFP and have nothing to do with recent events,

"How could we know that this would happen to the company," said Mitvol. "If we had a Nostradamus who worked for us then we would know but unfortunately we don't."

Critics say that Rosprirodnadzor is sometimes used by the government as a political force rather than an environmental watchdog.

Shell was forced to sell Sakhalin-2, one of the biggest private oil and gas projects in the world, to state-run gas giant Gazprom last year after Rosprirodnadzor reported ecological violations in the area.

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