IBM Corp has admitted that it is not the first Western company to set up a fully accredited subsidiary in the Soviet Union: following a report in the Wall Street Journal in June, a handful of other companies have said they were already here; a spokesman for IBM says the company was misquoted – Our letter from the Ministry of Finance said we were the first but we were aware that we are not, he says; IBM is believed to have spent several million dollars organising its new status and to give the Armonkers their due, IBM is still the first information technology company to open a wholly-owned subsidiary in the USSR.
