Moscow supplies Damascus with banknotes
(BRUSSELS2) 240 tonnes of banknotes. It is a volume that is difficult to imagine, both in terms of weight and cash. According to the news site Propublica, it is however the quantity of tickets sent by Russia to the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad between July 9 and September 15, 2012. According to the registers of overflight requests collected by the American site, eight round trips were operated between Damascus International Airport and Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, each carrying 30 tons of tickets.
It is impossible to know if the flight logs are accurate, ie to know if the aircraft in question were really and/or only carrying banknotes, or even what currencies they were. But the regime in Damascus may need both domestic and foreign currencies. "Most government revenue comes from taxes and dries up fastexplains Ibrahim Saif, a Jordanian political economist.
Syrian pounds to pay salaries (of the army)
In addition to freezing the assets of the government's economic supporters, since September 2011 the European Union has banned the printing of Syrian pounds in its member states. German, Belgian and Austrian companies, which hitherto struck the Damascus currency, ceased this activity. But, in order to finance the war machine, the Assad regime had to find liquidity somewhere. In June 2012, the news agency Reuters, citing four bankers in the Syrian capital, announced that Russia was printing Syrian currency. The dispatch was denied by the Syrian Central Bank in order to dampen the inflation already present, explaining that the banknotes printed in Russia were only used to replace damaged banknotes (their number must have increased because of the bombardments!). In August 2012, it was the turn of Deputy Economy Minister Qadr Jamil and Finance Minister Mohammad al-Jleilati to describe Russian financial support as "triumph over sanctions".
Foreign currencies for foreign trade
In terms of foreign currencies, the Syrian Central Bank had 17 billion dollars in foreign currencies before the end of the conflict. According to Propublica, it only has between 6 and 8 billion left, spending around $500 million a month. "Syrians may acquire foreign currency reserves (...) in order to conduct any serious business, explains Juan Zarate, an American specialist in terrorist financing, quoted by the information site. Before the conflict, it was tourism and oil sales that provided the Syrian economy with foreign currency. Two sectors today severely amputated.
An unusual road trip
These are Illyushin "Candid" (or Illyushin II-76) from the Syrian Air Force which are listed as having carried "banknotes". With the deterioration of Turkish-Syrian relations, these eight aircraft avoided Turkish airspace - used by civil aircraft making the Moscow-Damascus link - preferring to make a long loop via Azerbaijan, Iran and Iraq. It must be said that a month later, on October 10, Turkey stopped and checked the cargo of a Syrian airliner coming from Russia. The Propublica site says it has verified the flight reports using the archives of tracking systems, amateur photos or even using air traffic control recordings.
Find here the list of flight documents
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