MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that the documents used by the Paul Volcker Commission investigating corruption in the UN Oil-for-Food program were forgeries. "I have not seen the report itself, but I believe that we need to study the facts that might be there attentively," Lavrov said. "I say 'might be' because we contacted the Volcker commission several times at its request and the documents that we were shown were fake and contained forged signatures of Russian officials."
Lavrov said Russia had asked the commission to reveal the sources of the documents and part of the information furnished had no authentication.
The lists of officials who had allegedly received large oil export quotas from former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in exchange for bribes and kickbacks include Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of Russia's ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, and former Kremlin Chief-of-Staff Alexander Voloshin.
The Volcker Commission's report claims Zhirinovsky was allocated "millions of barrels" of oil in quotas whereas Voloshin was given 4.3 million.
A diplomatic source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Voloshin's signatures under the UN Oil-for-Food Program contacts were forged, and so, too, were the contracts themselves.
Zhirinovsky dismissed the accusations.
"I didn't sign a single contract, didn't receive a single cent from the Iraqi side and was never involved in commerce," he said.
