[JURIST] Russian diplomats meeting with members of the Independent Inquiry Committee [official website] looking into the now defunct UN Oil-for-Food Program [official website; JURIST news archive] have said that Russian companies did not violate UN sanctions against Iraq while participating in the humanitarian program. As described in a Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement [text] released Thursday, the committee members were told that:

In relation to questions about the role of Russian companies in the humanitarian program it was emphasized that in the course of the implementation of this program our national companies, which they have officially assured the Russian Foreign Ministry about, had acted in strict accordance with the sanctions regime against Iraq as established by UN Security Council resolutions and with relevant legislative acts of the Russian Federation.