Commenting on the report, which mentions Alexander Voloshin, chairman of the UES board of directors and former chief of staff to the Russian President, Chubais said Voloshin’s signature on the quoted documents had earlier been examined and found to be fake, and that this was a criminal offense. Chubais expressed hope that the issue would be settled, and those involved in the document forgery would be brought to justice.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov also said that Russian officials’ signatures on documents cited in Paul Volcker’s report were fake. Lavrov said Russia had cooperated with Volcker’s committee, and many signatures of Russian officials had been found to be fake, Mayak radio reported. “We made a request about the source of those documents because we would like to know who could be involved in these activities, but there has been no reply yet,” Lavrov said, noting the importance of examining Volcker’s report carefully.

The committee published its final report on Thursday, saying more than 2,500 companies from 66 countries paid a total of $1.8 billion in bribes and surcharges to Iraqi officials in order to get contracts under the Oil-for-Food program. Over 4,700 companies were involved in the humanitarian program, mostly from Russia and France.

The blacklist is part of the final report prepared by the committee, which was set up by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in April 2004. The list includes such name brand companies as DaimlerChrysler, Siemens, Volvo and Russia's UES. Among individuals accused of colluding with Saddam Hussein’s administration, the document named Igor Lebedev, son of Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Viktor Kalyuzhny, a former Russian minister for fuel and energy.