European Union states are concerned Russia’s growing influence in Libya will allow President Putin to “switch mass migration on and off” as a geopolitical weapon against the continent, Poland’s foreign minister has said.
Intelligence suggests that since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria last December, Russia has shifted focus to Libya by strengthening its ties with Khalifa Haftar, the warlord who controls large parts in the east of the divided country.
Putin is thought to be eyeing Tobruk in eastern Libya as a potential military base amid uncertainty over whether Russia can maintain its key naval facility at Syria’s Mediterranean port of Tartus.
“We see what Russia are trying to do in Libya moving assets from Syria to Tobruk,” Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, said this week after EU talks. “Europe should find this unacceptable. We cannot have a Russian outpost that switches mass migration on and off.”
Italy, France, Greece and Malta have asked the EU to schedule talks among interior ministers because Haftar is regarded as the main sponsor and supporter of migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean to Europe.
“It could give Putin a new card to play. The last thing we want is to allow Putin to weaponise mass migration,” a European ambassador said.
The prospect of a new base for Russia in Tobruk is ringing alarm bells at Nato and a meeting of alliance leaders in the Netherlands in two weeks is expected to define Russian influence in North Africa as a significant threat for the alliance.
Alliance intelligence sees Russian influence in Libya and Africa as the second most acute threat after Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Haftar, 81, is the commander of the Libyan National Army militia, which controls people trafficking and charges $100 per migrant, according to the Soufan Centre, an American think tank.
His son Saddam Haftar, 34, is being groomed as his successor and has become Russia’s main point of contact in Libya, potentially giving the Kremlin power over mass migration.
During the war in Syria, Russia used aircraft to take migrants to Belarus to put pressure on the border with Poland and the Baltic States. A Russian base in Tobruk could allow Russia to encourage irregular crossings into Europe on a much larger scale.
