(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121126-syrian-currency-kb-1115a.photoblog600.jpg)Muzaffar Salman / Reuters fileA man counts Syrian currency notes in Damascus on Nov. 13. Plunging public revenues are a sign of the fiscal pressures Damascus is facing in the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.By Dafna Linzer, Michael Grabell and Jeff Larson ProPublicaThis summer, as the Syrian economy began to unravel and the military pressed hard against an armed rebellion, a Syrian government plane ferried what flight records describe as more than 200 tons of “bank notes” from Moscow.
The records of overflight requests (http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/522212-syrian-flight-manifests) were obtained by ProPublica. The flights occurred during a period of escalating violence in a conflict that has left tens of thousands of people dead since fighting broke out in March 2011.
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The regime of Bashar al-Assad is increasingly in need of cash to stay afloat and continue financing the military’s efforts to crush the uprising. U.S. and European sanctions (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/10/eu-new-sanctions-iran-syria.html), including a ban on minting Syrian currency, have damaged the country’s economy. As a result, Syria lost access to an Austrian bank that had printed its bank notes.
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