Russian activists demand investigation into oil companies

MOSCOW (AP) — Labor and human rights activists urged the Russian government Feb. 8 to investigate oil producers’ alleged misuse of their huge profits, which they said has impoverished oil industry workers.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree in 1992 allowing oil- and gas-producing regions to keep up to 10 percent of their oil revenues on the condition that they split the money half-way between developing production and social programs, said reformist politician and human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov.

But no money appeared to have gone for social programs, he said. “The money has effectively disappeared, to put it mildly,” Ponomaryov told a news conference.

Oil and gas exports make up about half of Russia’s export revenues, and the industry accounts for most of the country’s wealthiest companies.

But oil and gas industry workers often go without pay for months, and are hardly better off than their counterparts in less profitable Russian industries, said Sergei Khramov, who heads the Sotsprof union association.

Meanwhile, repeated appeals to the government, Security Council, Prosecutor General’s office and other bodies to investigate the alleged misuse of funds have gone unanswered, Ponomaryov, Khramov and other labor leaders said.

“We demand that the issue be investigated and that it be determined where the millions of dollars have been spent,” Ponomaryov said.