The statement by the Baghdad newspaper "Al-Mada" about the involvement of certain Russian companies in illegal oil trading is an attempt to push Russia away from participation in Iraqi projects.

This opinion was expressed to the Oil Information Agency (ANI) by the executive director of the Council for Information and Cooperation in the Fuel and Energy Complex (SISTEK), Yevheniy Yahuplets, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

Earlier, the newspaper "Al-Mada" published a so-called list of "agents of influence" of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The recipients of Iraqi oil were named as 270 private individuals and organizations from Saudi Arabia, Australia, Brazil, China, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and representatives of the political and business elite of 16 Arab, 17 European, nine Asian, and four African states.

According to Yahuplets, the list of illegal oil recipients appeared in order to "after the failure to justify the invasion of Iraq, at least somehow motivate the pushing out of Russian companies that had established themselves in Iraq from projects in that country."

"We have always advocated for the presence of Russian companies in this region of the world, because it corresponds to Russia's core interests. Russia's positions in Iraq are strong and solid — this includes the training of specialists and the huge number of facilities that we built there," said Yahuplets.

He also noted that Russian companies that received 50-percent quotas for the sale of oil from the Iraqi government were controlled by the United Nations (UN) sanctions committee.

"All loading operations went through UN inspectors at the terminals. Therefore, talking about any bribes is ridiculous," says Yahuplets.

"Money never went to Iraq at all; companies sold oil at fixed prices, this money was accumulated in an authorized bank, part of the money was withdrawn for repatriation for Kuwait, and with part of the money products were purchased for supply to Iraq, and sometimes of rather low quality," explained Yahuplets.

"Not a single barrel of oil could go 'to the side,' bypassing UN inspectors," he said.

At the same time, he noted that smuggling may have gone through the Jordanian, Syrian, Turkish, and Iranian borders. "And Iraqi companies and businessmen were engaged in this smuggling," he stated.

Moreover, according to the executive director of SISTEK, large Russian companies engaged in the sale of oil in order, by contacting the Iraqi government, to establish themselves in the country's market. "They received no economic benefits; they incurred more expenses," explained Yahuplets.

Russia and Iraq, during the period of the UN "Oil for Food" program, concluded contracts for a total sum of $6 billion.

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