Oil-for-food: The Russian Connection

CFP ^ | March 8, 2005 | Judi McLeod

[MikeEdwards]

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Yevgeny Primakov, working hand in hand on UN reform, are close friends.

When Annan visited Moscow last April, he met first with Primakov and second with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Annan arrived in Moscow on Sunday, April 4, 2004 for what was described by Russian media as an early "working dinner" with Primakov, former President of the Russian Federation.

Handpicked by Annan to "reform" the United Nations, Primakov has not surfaced in the probe into the ongoing oil-for-food scandal. Yet, information indicates that he could be the disgraced program’s top Russian connection.

Primakov was appointed as one of a 16-person panel of political has-beens and diplomats from across the globe. The enormity of the scope of the mission handed to this panel of wise men can be understood in a closer examination of their actual mandate. The panel was asked to assess the global threat facing mankind, to consider how collective action might address them and to get back to Annan advising how the UN should be reformed to make it all possible.

On his appointment, Primakov lost no time in teaming up with panel member Brent Scowcroft, former U.S. National Security Adviser. This duo decided on an expansion of the Security Council to include six new permanent members: Japan, Germany, India, Brazil and two African states.

It was the Primakov-Scowcroft reform duo that recommended that the UN would recognize that weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists may justify–but only as a last resort–pre-emptive strikes and preventative wars.

The ultimate precautionary principle, United Nations style.

There was not even the feeblest bleep from the mainline media when Annan handpicked Primakov for the job. . . . . .