Russia sent tons of cash to Damascus, flight records show

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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 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, 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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