Assad regime sent $250 million in cash to Russia between 2018 and 2019 — The Financial Times
Syria’s Central Bank transported large shipments of U.S. dollars and euros to Russia by air between March 2018 and September 2019, The Financial Times reported on December 15, citing data from the Russian customs aggregator Import Genius.
According to the FT, the Assad regime sent nearly two tons of $100 and 500 euro banknotes to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. Over the period in question, 21 flights carried more than $250 million in cash from Syria to Moscow.
Records reviewed by the FT show that the funds were deposited into two Russian banks: Russian Financial Corporation (RFK) and TsMR Bank, both under U.S. sanctions. RFK is a subsidiary of Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state arms exporter.
A source familiar with the Syrian Central Bank’s finances told the FT that by 2018, Syria’s foreign reserves were nearly depleted. Due to international sanctions, the bank relied on cash payments to procure Russian wheat, pay for printing currency, and cover “defense” expenses. The source said the payments were made using “what was available in the vault.”
Russian customs documents also indicate that military components and newly printed Syrian banknotes — produced by Russia’s state-run printing company Goznak — were sent to Syria over several years, including both before and after the cash shipments. However, there is no evidence that the two Russian banks involved handled cash transfers from Syria or any other country outside the 2018–2019 period.
The FT noted that these cash transfers occurred when “the then Syrian dictator was indebted to the Kremlin for military support and his relatives were secretly buying assets in Russia.” In 2019, the FT wrote that relatives of Bashar al-Assad had acquired at least 20 apartments in Moscow since 2013.
