Russia is withdrawing significant amounts of military forces and equipment from Syria and transporting it to Libya, Western officials have said.
According to CNN, two American officials informed it that the Russians have begun moving naval assets from Syria to Libya, with another Western defence official reporting that Moscow has increasingly put pressure on eastern Libyan warlord, Khalifa Haftar, to secure a Russian claim to a port in Benghazi.
The development came as Russian authorities continue to assess whether the new Syrian government – led by former opposition group Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) – would be open to a negotiated settlement that would allow Russian forces and assets to remain in some of its bases in Syria, namely its Khmeimim airbase in Latakia and the port at Tartus.
Russian forces’ presence at and control over those facilities in Syria served a strategic purpose for Moscow over the past decade, enabling it to maintain access to warm waters, exert military influence, and allegedly to move illicit materials between Russia and Africa.
Its reported efforts to secure a port in Libya aim to serve the same purpose, with the defence official saying that Moscow would be left without a Mediterranean Sea port to project power on NATO’s southern flank if it fails to do so.
