MOSCOW, May 19 (RIA Novosti) - Alexander Voloshin, the Kremlin chief of staff in 1999-2003, has denied the U.S. Senate's accusations of engaging in illicit transactions with Iraq during the UN Oil for Food program.
Voloshin told foreign journalists that neither he nor other Kremlin officials had received Iraqi oil within the framework of the UN program for sale.
"I have never been to Iraq and never had any direct or indirect contacts with Iraqis. I was never engaged in Iraqi oil transactions," stressed the former Kremlin chief of staff.
According to Voloshin, there are no grounds to claim that those who came out against the US-led invasion of Iraq supported Saddam Hussein's regime and had financial interests in Iraq.
The protest against the US operation in Iraq does not mean participation in illicit transactions, he emphasized.
A committee of the U.S. Senate published a report on the investigation of violations within the framework of the UN Oil for Food program. Senators accuse a number of permanent members of the UN Security Council of receiving Iraqi oil for their protest against the overthrow of Saddam's regime.
Alexander Voloshin and leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky, former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and British parliament member George Galloway are mentioned in the report.
Voloshin does not know a Sergei Isakov whom the senators call "a confidant and official of the Kremlin staff" and Voloshin's intermediary in delivery of Iraqi oil to Russia.
