IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
May 23, 2003

MOSCOW — Russia dropped its opposition to a UN resolution lifting sanctions on Iraq once it believed its Soviet-era debt and massive oil contracts in the country would be respected, the Russian press said Friday, May 23.

“Russia ‘sold’ its vote in exchange for the respect of contracts and debt,” the Izvestia daily said, quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP). After weeks of opposition to the U.S.-sponsored resolution, Russia voted in favor Thursday of lifting the 13-year-old sanctions on Iraq, effectively handing over temporary control of Iraq’s oil revenues to the United States and its allies through an internationally-audited Development Fund.

“U.S. concessions made to the anti-war coalition do not change the substance of things, but help save face for those who extolled the key role of the UN,” Izvestia said.

The daily said a key point in winning Russia’s approval was the U.S. concession to reschedule Iraq’s debt – including eight billion dollars (6.8 billion euros) owed to Moscow – through the Paris Club.

In a clear gesture towards Moscow, Powell – a week ago in the Russian capital – said that the future Iraqi administration would “take fully into account” its eight billion dollar (seven billion euro) debt obligations to Russia.

A senior Pentagon official provoked anger in Moscow last month by suggesting that France, Germany and Russia could help Iraq by writing off its debts.

With substantial oil interests in Iraq, Russia has been anxious to secure UN involvement in Iraq to prevent the United States from taking full control of Baghdad’s oil riches until it hands over power to an Iraqi administration.

However, the resolution effectively establishes a moratorium on the debt by declaring Iraq’s oil revenues immune from legal proceedings until December 31, 2007.

And the resolution did not put a deadline on relinquishing U.S.-British control of the country, merely scheduling a review in 12 months and the promise that an internationally recognized government would eventually be set up by the Iraqi people.

Yet, the pro-Kremlin Vremya Novostei daily declared in a headline that “everyone won in Iraq” – sanctions were lifted while the United Nations won a role in post-war Iraq. “The United States and Britain stayed in Iraq, controlling its oil resources.

The anti-war coalition (France, Germany and Russia) were left with an unsullied reputation and the promise that its interests will be taken into account,” Vremya Novostei said.

The daily added that Russian President Vladimir Putin was keen to get the contentious issue solved before talks with his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush in Saint Petersburg later this month. And it praised the new resolution for extending the UN’s oil-for-food program for six months to ensure the delivery of priority civilian goods.

An original proposal to phase out the plan in four months would likely have led to the collapse of two billion dollars in contracts Russia holds to supply Iraq with trucks and oil industry spare parts.

The liberal Kommersant business daily charged that two billion dollars is “kopeks for full and unconditional capitulation on the Iraqi question.”

The newspaper accused the Russian leadership of abandoning its principles in voting for the resolution, abandoning its demand that UN weapons inspectors return to the country to ensure it is free of weapons of mass destruction before lifting sanctions.