Michael Soussan documents in his excellent book, Backstabbing for Beginners, how Russia was in bed with Saddam Hussein all the way in the corrupt Oil for Food program. Moscow colluded with Baghdad to prevent UN inspectors (for four years) from resuming their work looking for weapons of mass destruction. During that period Iraq sold Russian companies $19.1 billion worth of oil. "Hussein explicitly allocated a third of Iraq's underpriced oil to Russia's political leaders. Only they, or a company they approved of, had a right to purchase the below-market oil and resell it to an actual oil company at a profit," according to whistle blower Soussan.
Remember, the people who were screwed by this arrangement were primarily the people of Iraq, but also the rest of the people of the world. "For the price of $19.1 billion, Saddam Hussein had bought himself Russia's seat on the UN Security Council. It guaranteed that the United States would never again be able to attack Iraq with the approval of the UN. Saddam used the profit to buy (mostly) Russian-or Chinese-made weapons on the black market."
But, what about non-oil humanitarian goods that were supposed to go to the Iraqi people? Saddam got 10-30 percent kickbacks from companies selling goods to Iraq. Saddam set up "payment committees" of three Iraq embassy staffers in each of the following countries: "Russia, Greece, Egypt, Switzerland, Italy, Malasia, Turkey, Austria, Yemen, and Syria. France, and other countries, had other creative solutions to help Saddam keep the bribes out of the international banking system. The Iraqi Embassy staff were then charged with transporting the money to Iraq in red canvas bags that were immune from search by airport authorities. Each diplomatic bag could hold up to $1.5 million in $100 bills. The money would be deposited in Saddam's bank to do with as he pleased, just as in the old days, when there were no sanctions on Iraq."
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