It was anyone’s guess as to whether Igor Sechin, the hard man of the Kremlin and reputed ex-Soviet spy who now runs Russia’s biggest oil company, had a sensitive side. But last Friday, a carefully selected audience at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London found out that he did. Mr Sechin was delivering his first ever investor speech, part of a push to improve perceptions of state-owned Rosneft as he negotiates his biggest deal yet – the potential acquisition of BP’s 50 per cent stake in its Russian joint venture TNK-BP.

Seeking to address concerns about the state’s encroachment on Russia’s energy sector, the heavy-lidded ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin described his company as “our teddy bear”. Rosneft owes its hegemony largely to the state conquest of Yukos, the private company that was bankrupted and folded into the state energy group in the last decade.

Today, apparently, everyone at Rosneft is a lot nicer. “The feeling of ownership is formed in early childhood, when a child for the first time in its life hugs a teddy bear,” Mr Sechin said, to nervous giggles from the audience. “He doesn’t want to give it to anyone. We feel the same thing towards the property that has been entrusted to us. We will grow it and nurture it.”