The Russian director on the board of Bula Resources plc has resigned. Mr Vladimir Tokarev told the board he was resigning because he had taken on additional responsibilities in Russia.

Mr Tokarev was appointed to the board of Bula in July 1995 when the company was entering into a deal with KMNGG, a Siberian based oil and gas company of which Mr Tokarev was general manager.

Issues connected with that deal are now the subject of an investigation being carried out by a Government-appointed inspector, barrister Lyndon McCann. Mr Tokarev and the former chairman and managing director of Bula, Mr Jim Stanley, were the main figures involved in negotiating the deal.

It involved KMNGG, Bula, a British Virgin Islands company called Mir Oil Development and its subsidiary, Mir Space International.

The ownership of the Mir companies is one of the issues which Mr McCann has been asked to enquire into. At the time the deal was agreed, the board of Bula believed the Mir companies were owned by a Mr Charles Ellis, of South Africa.

However, the Russians have said that at the time they believed Mir was an offshore company belonging to Bula. And Mr Charles Lloys Ellis, a South African businessman and an acquaintance of Mr Stanley, has denied that he has any connection with Mir or the Russian deal.

The present whereabouts of Mr Stanley are not known. He is understood to be no longer living at Brownsbarn House, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, which was formerly his Irish home. He has also given up a flat in London.

But he is believed to be spending much of his time in Russia, pursuing personal business interests.

Bula has taken no decision on whether Mr Tokarev is to be replaced on the board.