Igor Sechin is one of Russia’s most powerful officials and one of its most secretive. A deputy prime minister tasked with overseeing the oil sector and one of Vladimir Putin’s closest confidantes, he rarely gives interviews. So it’s a big deal when he does, and the Wall Street Journal scored one, published today. It’s definitely worth a read (main story here; further interview excerpts here).

The main points:

– Sechin (who also chairs the board of oil giant Rosneft) wants to see Rosneft get a seat on BP’s board as part of a recently signed deal.

– That deal has been complicated by complaints from BP’s Russian oligarch partners; Sechin doesn’t like that and threatens legal action if the $16 billion deal isn’t allowed to go ahead.

– Sechin thinks Russia’s investment climate is a-ok (in reality, it is not). As evidence, he bizarrely cited the case of William Browder, once Russia’s leading portfolio investor. Browder was banned from entering Russia five years ago on grounds he posed a threat to national security; his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky was allowed to die in a Russian jail after being refused medical treatment.

– Sechin denied accusations he orchestrated the attack on Yukos and its former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky.