the U.S. state Department released a statement which stated that the security forces of Malta discovered a “counterfeit” of the Libyan money in the amount of $ 1.1 billion printed in Russia. Behind a loud statement – try to understand.
According to the U.S. Department of state, an order for the production of the money came from “an illegitimate parallel entities” as the only legitimate Bank in the country is the Libyan Central Bank in Tripoli.
the story in the US state Department statement calling for Russia to stop “destabilizing” the situation in Libya. In Washington do not hide the concern of Russian activity in this country, arguing that Moscow seeks to gain a foothold in the geopolitical bridgehead on the African continent.
In fact, no sensation in the history of Libyan dinars there, and this story, at least for several months. And even years. In the press quite openly wrote that the Russian were printed for the needs of the Eastern Central Bank in Libya banknotes are in denominations of 20 and 50 Libyan dinars, and also coins were minted in 1 Dinar.
with regard to the detention of counterfeit currency in Malta, in the autumn of last year in the Western mass-media there were messages that the Maltese authorities confiscated a large consignment of informal Libyan banknotes, which are thought to have intended the Caliph Haftarot.
according to the Guardian, the Maltese security service confirmed that two containers of 56 cubic meters, filled with newly printed currency, was discovered in late September, when the shipment in Malta has been discontinued.
the Sum of discovered money was not disclosed.
According to recent media reports, the money came from the Russian mint that printed money for unrecognized the Libyan government based in the Eastern city of Bayda.
Malta, meanwhile, recognizes the Tripoli-based government of national consensus headed by Viacom al-Saragam.
As written in the last year, local newspaper Times of Malta, starting in 2016, based in the East of Libya, the government printed billions of Libyan dinars in Russia, most of which was used to Fund headed by the Khalifa Haftarot “Libyan national army”. Sources in the security realm have argued that the cash spread with the speed of a forest fire beyond the control.
the Seizure of the Maltese authorities on the basis of what sources call “high-level intelligence” for the supporters of the Haftarot of money political observers interpreted as a move that “will benefit America, but not Russia”.
Source of security services Malta commented edition of Times of Malta’s detention of a shipment of banknotes: “I would not have interpreted this not as an anti-Russian action, and the action in the interest of the law. It was about the fact that Malta enforces the UN resolutions on Libya, which we signed and adhered to all this time.”
At the same time, noted the Guardian, an internationally recognized Central Bank in Tripoli at the time, announced Russian printed banknotes is illegal, so it is unclear under what sanctions were implemented, the detention of the goods.
anyway, even if doubt about the legitimacy of the banking system in Eastern Libya to name seized by the Maltese Dinar “false” there is no reason.
meanwhile it is worth remembering that in 2011, the media reported on how a British military transport aircraft to Libya has delivered 40 tons of freshly printed Libyan dinars to help the new authorities after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi to cope with the shortage of money supply. This cargo with a nominal value of 280 million dinars ($234 million) was part of the order of 1.86 billion dinars, remained under Gaddafi British firm De La Rue Plc. In Libya after the beginning of the armed conflict the British authorities froze the funds.
