Bashar al-Assad's central bank transferred about $250 million in cash to Moscow over a two-year period, when the then-Syrian dictator was indebted to the Kremlin for military support and his relatives secretly bought assets in Russia, the "Financial Times" reported, quoted by BNR.
The newspaper has uncovered records showing that the Assad regime, despite an acute shortage of foreign currency, sent banknotes weighing nearly two tons in $100 and €500 notes to Moscow's Vnukovo airport to be deposited in sanctioned Russian banks between 2018 and 2019.
The unusual transfers from Damascus eloquently show how Russia, a key ally of Assad that provided him with military support to prolong his regime, has become one of the most important destinations for Syria's money after Western sanctions forced it out of the financial system.
Opposition figures and Western governments have accused Assad's regime of plundering Syria's wealth and turning to criminal activity to fund the war and its own enrichment. The cash shipments to Russia coincide with a period when Syria became dependent on the Kremlin's military support, including from mercenaries from the "Wagner" group, and the Assad family began buying up luxury properties in Moscow, the "Financial Times" noted.
The newspaper quoted Eyad Hamid, a senior researcher at the Syria Legal Development Program, as saying that "Russia has been a haven for the Assad regime's finances for years and that Moscow has become a "hub" for evading Western sanctions imposed after the brutal suppression of the 2011 uprising against Assad."
Assad's flight to Moscow as rebels approached Damascus has even angered some former regime loyalists, who see it as evidence that he is only pursuing his own self-interest.