UN paid Russian air charters hundreds of millions while Putin invaded Ukraine

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

EXCLUSIVE: In the 14 months since Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and sent proxy fighters to invade eastern Ukraine, Russian companies have won more than $212 million in United Nations contracts to ferry troops, supplies and equipment -- on peacekeeping missions.

 

The tally amounts to nearly one-third -- 32 percent -- of the money U.N. headquarters has spent on peacekeeping air transport during that time, according to the U.N.’s procurement website.

 

The U.S. pays 28.4 percent of all U.N. peacekeeping expenses, so the Obama administration’s contribution to the Russian bottom line amounts to more than $60 million.

 

The open spigot for Russian air transport firms, despite Putin’s aggressive behavior abroad, is based on procurement methods for leased airplanes and helicopters that routinely favored a few winners.

 

Among other things, that system froze U.S. companies out of the costly and strategically sensitive business. According to U.N. records, only one U.S. firm won an air transport contract between June 2005 and June 2013.

 

Both U.N. officials and U.S. diplomats now claim that the story is changing -- albeit at a glacial pace that has allowed Russian firms to cash in handsomely even as Putin has orchestrated his thinly disguised Ukrainian adventure.

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Funding Putin's war?