The Atlantic Council website said in a report on Tuesday that Russia had flooded the Libyan market with the equivalent of at least 10 billion dinars in banknotes, adding that most of the money was paid to Khalifa Haftar’s forces and civilian officials, and it also flooded the market with other banknotes at the beginning of 2024.
The report indicated that the Russians entered the territory and political environment of the Sahel countries with the specific aim of interfering in their internal affairs, and the destabilization extended to the economic affairs. It said that during the war on Tripoli, Russia sent approximately 4.5 billion Libyan dinars in 4 shipments from February to June of 2019.
It said that the power vacuum in Libya calls for external intervention and presents Russia as the most visible player in the region by deploying its forces at Haftar’s expense there.
The Central Bank of Libya announced a few days ago the start of withdrawing the first and second prints of the 50 dinars banknotes from circulation, with the last date for accepting this denomination of Libyan currency in banks being the end of the working hours on Thursday, August 29, 2024.
Before that, the Central Bank of Libya published a presentation on the 50 dinars banknotes in circulation and it included details of the differences among four prints, including two authentic and two counterfeit ones.
Last February, the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir, said in a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aqila Saleh, that they had seized a counterfeit 50 dinars banknotes, which were widely circulated in the market, pointing out in his correspondence that the bank would take a decision to withdraw this category of currency from circulation.
