Syria dictator Bashar al-Assad reportedly airlifted around £200 million in cash to Moscow in a two-year period when Syria was dependent on Russia for support.
The Financial Times uncovered records showing that Assad’s regime flew two tonnes of banknotes into Vnukovo airport in Moscow to be deposited at Russian banks between 2018 and 2019.
The shipments came at a time when Syria was dependant on Russia’s military support, including mercenaries from the Wagner group.
At the same time Assad’s family began buying hoards of luxury properties in Moscow, the FT reported.
Assad’s regime has been accused of looting Syria’s wealth and turning to criminal activity to finance the war against its own people.
It was also gathered that Assad’s regime transported huge shipments of US and euro banknotes into Russia between March 2018 and September 2019.
Russian trade records from Import Genius, an export data service, show that on in 2019, a plane carrying $10mn in $100 bills sent on behalf of Assad’s central bank landed in Vnukovo airport.
The central bank then airlifted in around €20mn in €500 notes in February 2019. There were 21 flights from March 2018 to September 2019 with money worth over $250million (USD).
According to the records, the transfers only started happening in 2018.
A person familiar with Syrian central bank data told the FT that foreign reserves were almost depleted by 2018.
Due to sanctions, the bank had to make payments in cash, they added.
It bought wheat from Russia and paid for money printing services and ‘defence’ expenses, the person said.
They said the central bank would pay according to what was available ‘in the vault’. When a country is completely surrounded and sanctioned, they have only cash’, they said.
Russian records show that exports from Russia to Syria took place in the years before and after the shipment of money, including new Syrian banknotes, secure paper and military components.
However, there is no record of the Russian lenders who received the banknotes and took any other shipments of cash from Syria or any other country.
Now even some former loyalists of the Assad regime have become angry at Assad’s escape to Moscow, seeing it as proof of his overriding self-interest.
In 2015, Russia brought its warplanes to bear down on what remained of the Syrian rebels and Islamist insurgents.
The ties between the two countries became deeper as Russian military advisers bolstered Assad’s war effort and Russian companies became part of Syria’s lucrative phosphate supply chain.
Over the past six years, people with insight into the regimes working said Assad and his associates seized control of the country’s troubled economy.
Asma al-Assad, first lady and ex-JP Morgan banker influenced international aid and oversaw a secretive presidential economic council.
The regime also generated money from international drug trafficking and fuel smuggling, according to the US.
Washington had previously sanctioned the regime for its cash transfers.
In 2015, The US treasury accused former Syrian central bank governor Adib Mayaleh and a central bank employee of facilitating bulk cash transfers for the regime to Russia.
Records show the cash delivered to Moscow in 2018 and 2019 was delivered to Russian Financial Corporation Bank, or RFK, a Russian lender based in Moscow controlled by Rosoboronexport, the Russian state arms export company.
In March 2018 records show Syria’s central bank also shipped $2mn to another Russian bank, TsMR Bank, which has also been sanctioned by the US.
This comes days after Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s allies confirmed that Russia helped President Bashar al-Assad flee Syria to Moscow after · Rebels seized power.