Strauss-Kahn admits his political career is over

MOSCOW – Agence France-Presse

In this July 1, 2011 file photo, former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn listens to proceedings in New York State Supreme court in New York. AP Photo

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn declared in an interview broadcast Wednesday on Russian television that his political career was over and he was instead working as an economic advisor.

“Politics for me is in the past,” Strauss-Kahn, who resigned from the IMF’s top job in 2011 after being accused of sexual assault in a New York hotel, told state news channel Rossiya 24 in an interview. “Today, I am working as an advisor to big companies in numerous countries in all the corners of the world - in Russia, Africa and Latin America,” he added.
 
“I try my best to fulfill my role and give the most accurate advice possible,” he said in the interview, which was conducted in French but dubbed into Russian.
 
Until his downfall, Strauss-Kahn was seen as the leading candidate to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency but the New York case made his participation impossible. The presidency was ultimately won by his fellow Socialist Francois Hollande. He admits a sexual encounter took place in the New York hotel room but says it was consensual. In December, he paid undisclosed damages to the maid whose allegation sparked the case.

 Strauss-Kahn was in July suddenly appointed a member of the board of directors at two Russian state-controlled financial institutions - the Russian Fund for Direct Investment and the Russian Bank for Regional Development, the latter controlled by oil giant Rosneft.