Russia rejects oil-for-food report
May 16, 2005
MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Russia has lashed out at a U.S. Senate report that says Saddam Hussein sought to buy its support with lucrative oil allocations under the U.N. oil-for-food program, saying it appeared to be aimed at discrediting the United Nations and suggesting U.S. lawmakers should mind their own business.
Ultranationalist Russian lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who the Senate subcommittee report says received Iraqi oil allocations worth $8.7 million under the scandal-tainted program, denied any wrongdoing.
He said Monday that he never received money from Iraq or from companies that bought oil from Saddam's government.
I did not sign a single contract, I did not receive a single cent from Iraq -- not a kopeck, Zhirinovsky told Ekho Moskvy radio. He said he never saw any Iraqi oil, not a drop.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that, in the U.S. report, Russia was incriminated by the very fact of its participation in the program, which was designed to let Iraq sell oil and use the proceeds to buy humanitarian items to ease the effects on the Iraq people of U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
It is difficult to avoid the impression that the senators are trying to discredit the United Nations as a whole, pointing fingers at other countries while leaving the participation of American firms ... outside the brackets, the ministry said in a statement.
It would be more logical for them to attend to seeking violations in their own country, it added acidly.
The ministry said it was cooperating with a U.N.-appointed commission investigating the oil-for-food program, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Despite two visits to Moscow, that commission has not provided any documented facts that would point to possible abuses by Russian companies or individuals.
The U.S. report details allegations that Saddam used oil vouchers, which allowed the bearer to buy Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices, to curry favor with countries holding veto power in the U.N. Security Council. The Senate subcommittee said about 30 percent of the oil sold in the program was allocated to Russia.
Zhirinovsky said he used his close ties with Saddam's government to steer Iraqi oil to Russian companies, but claimed he was motivated by patriotism and received no compensation for helping with introductions to Iraqi officials. He pointed out that the program allowed Iraq to decide whom to sell oil to.
I got no (money) from either side, said Zhirinovsky, who estimated he visited Iraq some 15 times a year before his last trip in 2002.
Zhirinovsky also denied that he provided political or diplomatic support to Iraq in exchange for oil deals, calling the idea absurd and saying he had always opposed the U.N. sanctions. Zhirinovsky has been a Russian parliament member for over a decade, but was never in the government.
The U.S. report said the Russian Presidential Council -- led by Alexander Voloshin, former chief of staff to President Vladimir Putin -- received oil allocations worth more than $16 million, according to Iraq's oil ministry. Voloshin could not be reached for comment.
The Senate report said Zhirinovsky on six occasions sold oil allotments to the Texas oil company Bayoil, whose owner, David B. Chalmers, has been indicted on charges related to the U.N. program.
While Zhirinovsky said he had no commercial involvement in deals related to oil-for-food, he did not expressly deny a connection to Bayoil.
With Saddam favoring Russia, France and China, U.S. oil companies courted companies from those countries as they sought Iraqi oil, he said.
Bayoil could have received oil through somebody, he said. But what link is there to me here?