Leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Symonenko denies the possibility of financing of his party by Saddam Hussein's regime, in particular at the expense of the sale of Iraqi oil.

In an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Saturday, commenting on information that appeared in a number of media outlets regarding the fact that Hussein's regime financed a number of political parties in Ukraine in exchange for support of his regime, Symonenko said: "This is a pure provocation."

Symonenko also noted that during his stay at the PACE session in Strasbourg, a person approached him, a native of Ukraine, who warned him about a provocation being prepared in Ukraine. "We are witnessing a pure provocation," he said, adding that it is no secret to anyone that all oil exported from Iraq was controlled by the USA.

Answering the agency's question about the further actions of the Communist Party and whether the CPU intends to go to court in connection with such information, Symonenko noted that this is futile.

As reported, among the Ukrainian public organizations allegedly involved in supporting Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, Western media name a number of centrist and left-wing parties.

According to ABC NEWS, the Social Democratic Party (8.5 million barrels), the Communist Party (6 million barrels), and the Socialist Party (2 million barrels) received oil from Hussein. In addition, among the Ukrainian recipients, "FTD oil company" is named - 2 million barrels.

Earlier, the Al-Mada newspaper published the so-called list of "agents of influence" of Saddam Hussein's regime. The recipients of Iraqi oil are named as 270 private individuals and organizations from Saudi Arabia, Australia, Brazil, China, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, representatives of the political and business elite of 16 Arab, 17 European, nine Asian and four African states.

At the same time, the Institute for the Study of Mass Media of the Middle East (an independent non-governmental organization, Washington), which also posted the published lists on its website, indicates that in Ukraine the Social Democratic Party received 1 million barrels, the Communist Party - 6 million, the Socialist Party - 1 million, FTD oil company - 1 million barrels.

The Washington institute warns about possible discrepancies in names and surnames due to the complexity of transliterating the Arabic text.

On Friday, member of the parliamentary faction of the Socialist Party of Ukraine Yosyp Vinsky also denied information about the financing of the SPU by Saddam Hussein's regime.

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