Divisions over Rosneft may have prompted delay, analysts say Bashneft shares fell as much as 15 percent after announcement A power struggle within President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle may lie behind Russia’s surprise decision to delay selling a stake in Bashneft PJSC, its biggest asset sale in a decade, according to analysts. “There was an internal conflict among the elite over who would get the assets that had potential long-term consequences,” Yevgeny Minchenko, head of the Moscow-based International Institute of Political Expertise, said Wednesday. Rosneft PJSC chief Igor Sechin, Lukoil PJSC’s billionaire head Vagit Alekperov and smaller regional groups were all unable to convince the Kremlin that they deserved the asset, “so the issue was kicked down the road,” he said. Among reasons for the postponement “as we see it, is Rosneft’s Sechin insistence that if he can’t have Bashneft, no one will,” Luis Saenz, head of equity sales […]