Ghost at the feast: Mikhail Khodorkovsky may remain in prison in Moscow. But he was on everyone's mind in London this week.(Editorial)(Editorial)

The Russian Economic Forum in London this week offered a good example of how oil firms--both international and domestic--see fit to conduct themselves in the second phase of the Putin era (see p4).

From an energy-sector perspective the event was a rather lacklustre affair, despite the general hype surrounding it. In previous years, western firms have used the forum to call for progress on the now non-issue of production sharing, and other burning questions of the moment.

This time, everyone was curiously polite. Western majors waxed lyrical about Russia's mighty reserve potential and refrained from alluding to any concerns they might have about taxation, …