Russia's Foreign Ministry Denies That Russian Companies Violated U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Program
Russia's Interfax news agency reports that Russian Foreign Ministry officials, in a meeting with members of the Independent Inquiry Committee on the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program (the Volcker Commission), denied that any Russian company involved in the program engaged in any illicit activity. The story states quotes a Foreign Ministry press release stating that "In response to questions about the role of Russian companies in the humanitarian operation, it was stressed that in the course of implementation of this program, our companies acted in strict conformity with the regime of sanctions against Iraq imposed by resolutions of the UN Security Council and with legislative acts of the Russian Federation."
If you believe that statement, I have some swampland in Siberia I'd like to sell you. As previously reported, Richard Goldstone, a member of the Volcker Commission, said that about half of the 4,500 companies that took part in the U.N. program paid kickbacks or illegal surcharges to the Government of Iraq.
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