Russia accused of destabilizing Libya with counterfeit banknotes

Russia is accused of printing counterfeit money on a farm on the outskirts of Benghazi. There, the opposition to Tripoli, General Khalifa Haftar, who commands the Libyan National Army, has his base. Russian mercenaries have supported him since at least 2018.

At the end of April, the central bank of Libya confirmed and presented counterfeit banknotes worth 50 dinars (approximately 13 Canadian dollars). The government estimates several billion counterfeit banknotes, worth at least 13 billion Canadian dollars, have appeared on the Libyan market. In response, the bank decided to withdraw this denomination by the end of August.

This is not the first time the Kremlin has flooded Libya with counterfeit currency. From 2016 to 2020, the branch of the central bank of Libya operating in the eastern part of the country, which is under Haftar's control, commissioned the Russian state company Goznak to print its version of the Libyan dinar, despite Haftar's administration not having access to currency security features such as gold.

In 2019, nearly 6 billion counterfeit dinars were sent from Russia to the eastern port city of Tobruk.

Russia is seeking to gain a dominant position in Libya to control as much of the country’s territory as possible, so it can influence neighbouring countries in North Africa and create a bridge to the south, where it already has footholds in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. By controlling Libya, Russia can also control the migration routes from Africa to Europe that pass through it.

Libya is divided between Haftar’s government in Benghazi and the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, whom Haftar is trying to topple.