Russian leaders snared in oil-for-food scandal

Ken Guggenheim, Washington

Hussein’s vice-president, Taha Yasin Ramadan, told investigators the allocations were “compensation for support”, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigations subcommittee said in a report released yesterday. The investigators said their interviews and documents from the former Iraqi government link Russian officials to abuses in the UN oil-for-food program.

Among the officials that have been implicated are Alexander Voloshin, former chief of staff to President Vladimir Putin, and ultra-nationalist Russian lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky.