Russia prints money for the civil war-torn country Libya. Now Malta has confiscated a large amount of the local currency, the dinar. Washington promptly speaks of illegally printed counterfeit money. And then Moscow comes up with an explanation.
Washington / Moscow / Tripoli (dpa) - Security agencies in Malta have seized counterfeit Libyan banknotes worth $ 1.1 billion, according to the US.
The US State Department said the banknotes were printed by the Russian state-owned company Gosnak. The counterfeit money was ordered by an "illegitimate parallel body", it said in view of the insurgent General Chalifa Haftar, who was supported by Russia in the civil war country. The island of Malta is about 350 kilometers from the Libyan coast.
Russia has firmly rejected US allegations of counterfeiting Libyan banknotes. "It is not the Libyan dinar that is wrong here, but the American statements," said the Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday. The contract to print these banknotes was signed in 2015 between the Russian joint-stock company Gosnak and the head of the central bank of Libya.
The service was paid for by the Libyan side, the Russian company printed the notes on behalf of the Libyan. The production of notes was also necessary to keep the economy going, according to Moscow. The Russian state-owned company Gosnak criticized in a statement that the Maltese authorities had illegally confiscated the legally printed money. That is a violation of international law.
The Maltese authorities had already confiscated the containers in September 2019 and, despite multiple requests, had not given a statement for months about the whereabouts of the money - until now because false claims were being made. The expert commission on Libya in the UN Security Council did not see any violation of sanctions in the print run, the state enterprise emphasized. It is therefore illegal to speak of counterfeits.
At the moment, according to the Russian account, there are actually two central banks because of the power struggle in the civil war country. One is in the capital, Tripoli, where the internationally recognized government of Fajis al-Sarradsch is in control. The second bank is therefore in Torbuk, where General Haftar is now in charge.
The U.S. State Department stressed in its release released Friday that the Libyan central bank in Tripoli was the only legitimate central bank in the country. The incident emphasized that Russia must end its destabilization of Libya. The United States had only accused Russia a few days ago of sending fighter jets to Libya to support Haftar. Russia said that it was probably a Soviet MiG-29 fighter jet, as it is in the possession of many African countries and also the United States.
Security agencies in Malta had already discovered two containers full of counterfeit Libyan banknotes in September. The notes were "an important means of funding Haftar's war against Tripoli," wrote Middle East Institute expert Jonathan Winer after the find. Government officials in the east had admitted since 2016 that Russia had provided banknotes.
The internationally recognized government in Tripoli and the central bank there had not previously declared banknotes printed in Russia to be illegal. There is concern that this move could lead to a liquidity crisis in eastern Libya, which could exacerbate tensions in the civil war country.