MOSCOW, September 3 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian foreign ministry official said Saturday Russia's Consulate General in New York would provide legal support to Vladimir Kuznetsov, the head of the Administrative and Budgetary Committee of the UN General Assembly, arrested on money laundering charges.
Vladimir Ivanov, a deputy director of the foreign ministry's information and press department, said a Consulate General officer had met with Kuznetsov Friday, September 2, to discuss a possibility for him to be released on bail, but gave no further details.
Ivanov said, referring the Consulate General officer, that Kuznetsov insisted his activities at UN bodies had been absolutely transparent.
Money laundering charges were brought up on Friday. The indictment that was read out in a Manhattan court said Kuznetsov had set up a company in an off-shore zone in 2000 for laundering money he had allegedly received from a UN procurement department officer. The latter, prosecutors said, had taken bribes from foreign companies seeking contracts with the organization.
Marie Okabe, a UN spokesperson, said Friday Secretary General Kofi Annan had stripped Kuznetsov of his diplomatic immunity Thursday after studying American prosecutors' request and notified Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the phone of that. U.S. Ambassador at the UN John Bolton hailed Annan's prompt response without making further comments.
Russia's Alexander Yakovlev, a former UN procurements department officer, was arrested near New York on August 8. The same day he admitted the charges of fraud in electronic fund transfers, conspiracy to commit fraud, and money laundering. Yakovlev, released on bail and under recognizance not to leave, has been helping investigators, trying to secure a mitigated punishment.
