UNITED NATIONS, Feb 8 (TASS) - Crimes committed by a number of countries during their invasion of Iraq were left unpunished, and any expectations of eventually bringing those responsible to justice would be unrealistic, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya has told reporters.

"There are many things in this world left uninvestigated," he told a media conference on Tuesday. "And of course, the Iraqi hoax was never properly investigated. Nobody paid real responsibility for the crimes committed in Iraq. And I shall not today be explaining to you why. To think that there will be something like a tribunal on the Iraqi war would be a little bit unrealistic. People are busy with other things these days. But the questions remain. There are so many crimes committed which are pretended to be nonexistent at all, as if nothing had happened."

"This is the hypocrisy of the policies of some of our partners, including here in the Security Council," the Russian diplomat added.

At the UN Security Council meeting on February 5, 2003, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell displayed a test tube containing some white powder, claiming that it was a sample of chemical weapons developed in Iraq, which, in Washington’s view, explained the need to launch a military operation against Baghdad. Russia did not consider the test tube to be sufficient evidence proving the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

As a result, voting on a resolution stipulating the use of military force against Baghdad did not take place. Nevertheless, the United States and Great Britain launched a military operation without the global community’s consent. Eventually, no trace of chemical weapons was found in Iraq, and the purported evidence proved to be a fake.