According to Russian media, the Libyan army commander in chief Marshal Khalifa Haftar officially asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to re-supply his country with modern weapons. At the same time delivering this message to Moscow a special envoy of the Haftarot, Libya’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdel Basset al-Badri handed over to the special representative of the President of Russia on the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov , the request of the Marshal as soon as possible to start his country’s counter-terrorism operation against Islamist radicals. Similar to that for a year is booming in Syria.
That these messages are not journalistic fiction, no doubt. The Libyan leadership, barely controlling a few scraps of his torn mindlessly NATO troops in 2011, the country has long aspired to Putin rushed to save him just like now saves Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. And this is not the first such request.
In April 2015, interim Prime Minister of Libya Abdullah al-Thani said: “We want Russia, this great state, contributed to the restoration of stability and military might of Libya.” And promised to start implementing the long contracts signed during the Muammar Gaddafi, brutally torn to pieces in 2011 by former subjects.
That is, we really want any form to be drawn into endless and pointless fight of all against all on the ruins of the once-prosperous African state. For those who have forgotten: do not UN-sanctioned aerospace NATO operation “Odyssey. Dawn” in 2011 turned this country a monstrous consequences of political and economic sunset.
By the beginning of crushing air strikes, the average income per capita in this country was approximately 11.9 thousand dollars (as, incidentally, in present-day Russia). Today, the rate in Libya is twice lower. Nurtured on almost gratuitous oil in the garden city turned into a desert.
Who knows scheduled tribes slaughtered each other, everywhere are storming government buildings and burning international airports. The militants, openly, resting on former government dachas of the Gaddafi regime and preparing for new battles in Syria. Countless streams of refugees from across Africa through a never-ending cockroach crawl in Europe, and Europe itself confused argue: who is more to blame for suddenly opened restore?
Exactly — not Russia. But, it turns out, is to wipe other people’s dirty other military and political puddles. In Syria, we in this thing went. Whether to go to Libya? For this, in my opinion, there’s no reason to.
Us operation in Syria will be enough for the eyes. It would be pulling, not tearing navel. And the prospects here for today is dangerously unclear. Poorly hidden alarm of the Kremlin is easy to see in the recent recognition of the already mentioned Russian Deputy foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov: “When we started our action and our videoconferencing was connected to the fight against terrorists, we hoped that the operation will last for several months. Today we celebrate the anniversary, and until the end of this our work is not visible.
What kind of Libya…
However, it can be argued that the defeated in Syria by the Islamic radicals have turned left without a centralized government of Libya in its rear base. And slowly recede back. A sharp increase in the number of bandits in the country in February 2016, said the US intelligence. Beards can be arranged in the former the birthplace of Gaddafi, according to some reports, even training bases for training of kamikaze pilots. And, not hitting the thugs in Libya, with this world evil does not end.
That’s right. But why on a new hornet’s nest have we beat it? Let there sinking those who started all this in the North of Africa. For example, Americans with the French.
Their military, by the way, recently started to work. The flag in hands. From August 1 this year, the U.S. air force aircraft with the Italian airfields at the request of the national consensus government of Libya strikes on militant positions in the city of Sirte and its surroundings. And even earlier it became known that the secret war in Libya, French special forces. The secret is out in July. After the ISIS from heavy machine guns managed to shoot down a helicopter of the French air force with a few Marines on Board.
Remember, NATO has approximately the same sluggish and fought with Islamists in Syria, while there a year ago suddenly appeared Air and Space forces of Russia and has not achieved a decisive breakthrough in the war, is actually helping out the Assad regime from imminent disaster? Apparently, the West would not mind that in Libya, we somehow “informal” stand beside and lean.
Anyway, the other day, September 22, at the meeting with the foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov , Minister of foreign Affairs of Italy Paolo Gentiloni said: “We insist on cooperating with Russia on the Libyan crisis, which is important for the policy of Italy and migration.
Do you also think is no coincidence that the timing of these persistently-gracious invitations of Rome, Moscow as soon as possible deep enough to stick his head in the Libyan boiler with a bold initiative of the Marshal of the Caliph Haftarot? It is possible that the Marshal do not he thought. Many believe that behind the Libyan commander in chief is a WA. And actually the Americans would not mind and Libya passed on to Russia, the main burden of the fight against ISIS.
On such suspicions suggest some milestones biography military biography of Haftarot. In the late 80-ies he was sent by Gaddafi to lead an armed intervention in neighboring Chad. There was captured. Renounced their leader, was released and immediately left for the United States. Since 1987, solitarily and contentedly settled in Virginia. Since this was hardly possible without participation of special services of the United States, already in the Haftarot some freshly baked suspected CIA agent.
Further developments of these insights have only strengthened. In 2011, after the defeat of the Gaddafi regime, while the more modest major General Haftar returned to a devastated homeland. On 17 November, after only five days after the formation of the provisional government of the country, 150 former officers of the disbanded government army in El-Beida held a meeting. And it unanimously elected former exile, rushed for the occasion from far away Virginia, the future commander in chief of the armed forces.
Since all assignments in Tripoli then, no doubt, was carried out under tight control of the winners from NATO, the future Marshal is also unlikely that personnel passed the sieve. Leaves, at least the benevolence of the West to the Haftarot is an undeniable fact. Then it is easy to imagine that the main ideas he agrees, at least with Washington. Well, why do we need an invitation from there to anywhere? Not only in Libya?
Only does this mean that the special envoy of the Marshal in vain from Saudi Arabia raced in Russia? A grain of truth in them brought the papers there really is. The resumption of deliveries of Russian weapons — this item offers from Libya certainly deserves attention. We had completely lost this very profitable during the Soviet era export market. And return is very worthwhile.
The Libyan military after all, so why should our weapons? First, because many of them learned to fight only with him. During Soviet times, Colonel Gaddafi was one of the most generous clients of the domestic defense industry. His army was armed almost exclusively our samples (something yet supplied France). And war with NATO Libya miserably lost only because for various reasons in the post delivery times we almost stopped. Bought before Moscow’s aircraft, missiles and ships would inevitably grow old. Finished off their lack of spare parts and specialists from Russia. And then NATO arrived, arranging from North Africa real shooting.
Secondly, the year that has passed since the beginning of our operations in Syria, have demonstrated not only Marshal Hamtaro that the existing Russian new Arsenal to fight ISIS is enough.
And third, apparently, in the current Tripoli now, after like the massacre of “operation Dawn. Odyssey, not too trust the Americans and their European allies. And possibly try to stay away from them. Even the alleged CIA agents.
That the arms market of Libya may again flung open for us in 2105, and hinted Abdullah al-Thani, which were discussed above. Then he promised: “We will review some of the contracts signed by the previous regime in 2008, so they were beneficial to both parties.”
What are these contracts? Our military-technical cooperation with Tripoli was frozen at the beginning of 2011 in connection with the embargo of the UN Security Council. By that time, operated a number of contracts for the export of arms from Russia to Libya. In particular, Gaddafi expected us 12 multi-purpose su-35, 48 tanks T-90S, a number of anti-aircraft missile systems /SAM/ S-125 “Pechora”, “tor-M2E, and s-300PMU-2 “Favorit”, at least one diesel-electric submarine of project 636 “warszawianka”, a large number of small arms and light weapons, a large shipment of sea min.
The total cost of this stuff — about two billion dollars. At least, a very interesting amount for our military-industrial complex in times of acute economic crisis.
Money even in deep anarchy of the potential buyer is still available. Before the NATO bombing on Libya accounted for 2 percent of world oil production (1.6 million barrels per day). The war seriously ruined this figure. According to Bloomberg, the resumption in September of the current work of the three major ports (RAS lanuf, es-sider and Zueitina), retaken from the Islamists, in a period of two weeks will double the level of oil production in the country (up to 600 thousand barrels per day).
Not the level of Gaddafi, but still. The topic of talks with Tripoli on arms export clearly appears.
