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.

Russia’s foreign ministry declined comment on the report, saying it would be “unethical to make any statements” until a UN-appointed commission investigating the oil-for-food program releases its third report this summer.

The congressional panel’s findings were released ahead of a hearing today tomorrow on

Saddam’s use of oil vouchers to reward supporters. The vouchers allowed the bearer to buy Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices and could be sold for a profit. Saddam also demanded kickbacks from the oil transactions.

The panel released documents last week claiming former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and British politician George Galloway also accepted allocations.