Russian Companies to Expand in Iraq

Moscow plans to expand the presence of Russian oil companies in Iraq, says Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

Ivanov said intensive talks on expanding the activities of Russian oil companies in Iraq were currently under way with the interim Governing Council of Iraq. The minister described reports that major Russian oil companies had accepted bribes from Saddam Husayn's regime as "absurd and aimed at preventing our companies from building their businesses in the region".

Ivanov recalled that the entire export of Iraq's oil was being carried out under the United Nations' Oil for Food humanitarian programme. "UN decisions set the necessary mechanism for overseeing the implementation of these contracts which were not approved by the Iraqis but by independent controllers. And it was not the Iraqis who were paid for the oil, the payments went to the UN's special account," he said.