The regime of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has flown about $250 million (Rs 2,082 crore) in cash to Moscow, according to a stunning revelation in a press conference. Financial times report. The transactions were carried out over a two-year period – 2018 and 2019 – and included almost two tonnes of US$100 notes and €500 notes, the newspaper said. These banknotes were flown to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport and deposited in sanctioned Russian banks. The report also noted that Assad's family members secretly purchased assets in Russia during the same period.
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FT He said these transactions show the extent to which Assad's regime has evaded Western sanctions that pushed it out of the financial system.
Assad fled Syria on December 8 after an 11-day rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), following years of civil war sparked by his violent suppression of anti-government protests in 2011. He is now in Russia.
The war has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced more than half of the country's population.
Assad has faced criticism from several opposition figures who accuse his regime of plundering Syria's wealth and turning to criminal activities to finance the war.
David Schenker, the former US Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East, said FT that the transfers were not surprising.
“The regime should take its money abroad to a safe haven so that it can be used to acquire the good life … for the regime and its inner circle,” he said.
Eyad Hamid, senior researcher at the Syrian Legal Development Program, said Russia has been a safe haven for the Assad regime for years.
Russia has supported the Assad regime for years, but the relationship deepened when Russian companies became involved in the Syrian phosphate supply chain.
And between March 2018 and September 2019, massive money transfers took place between the two countries, something previously unprecedented.
Surprisingly, there is no evidence that Russian banks received banknotes worth $250 million within two years FT report said.
It happened because Assad and his close associates had taken personal control of critical parts of the war-torn country's devastated economy.
Assad and his aides also made money from international drug trafficking and fuel smuggling, the newspaper said, citing US officials.