Russia Belittles Significance of Oil-for-Food Investigation
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

UNITED NATIONS – Russia, one of three nations whose officials and companies are tainted by allegations of corruption involving the U.N. oil-for-food program, does not see the committee charged with probing the program as an “inquiry mission,” despite a U.N. Security Council resolution defining it as such.
One day after being accused of poor cooperation, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Yuri Fedotov, belittled the legal significance of the investigation conducted by a team headed by Paul Volcker, and indicated that Russia would not accept its findings as final, relying on Secretary-General Annan and a consequent council resolution instead.
Russia “respects” the council resolution that founded the team last spring, Mr. Fedotov told The New York Sun yesterday. But it does so “with the understanding that that is not a prosecution office, or inquiry mission, but a mission which should report [its findings to] the secretary-general, which then will be represented to the Security Council.”
Mr. Volcker, who was named by Mr. Annan to head the independent inquiry, said in an August press conference that his committee’s report will have the “definitive word” on any wrongdoings in the scandal-ridden program.
Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, was initially reluctant to support the April 21 resolution, but ended up voting for it. Welcoming the team’s “independent high-level inquiry,” the resolution called on all U.N. member states “to cooperate fully by all appropriate means with the inquiry.”
On Wednesday the Associated Press quoted an official close to the Volcker investigation as saying “the Russians have been reluctant to provide witnesses and information” to the team. “They are being problematic and they are digging in their heels. They’re not handing over materials.”
“Russia does cooperate,” countered Mr. Fedotov. A group of investigators spent three days in Moscow recently meeting with officials, he told the Sun. Those meetings “were held both in the morning and the afternoon,” he said. “They were lengthy and…involved participation of Russian experts, which were directly involved in the implementation of the oil-for-food program.”
Companies and officials from Russia, China, and France top the list of suspects of those who benefited from oil-for-food corruption. Weapons inspector Charles Duelfer reported that Iraqi oil vouchers, Saddam’s favorite bribe option, were supplied to the Russian presidential office, the state-run oil companies Yukos and Lukoil, and the firebrand politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Mr. Fedotov said he was aware of those reports. “There are no dates and no facts which could confirm or corroborate those allegations,” he said.