Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
Press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov made an announcement today apparently denying the rumors that Russian ground troops were present in Libya.

"Vladimir Putin, the commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation did not send troops to Libya and did not give any orders in this regard," he said. "There are no Russian troops in Libya."

Prior to this, the BBC published a report on the alleged funeral in the Orenburg region of an officer who "could have died in Libya." Peskov said he did not know anything about this.The Kremlin has repeatedly denied such allegations from the United States. In particular, Peskov called them "a duck," and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called them rumors.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also claims that Russia leads the war in Libya "at the highest level." At the same time, Turkey itself sent its regular troops to Libya in January.

"This is done for the sake of stability. Our soldiers should fulfill two tasks there - it is ensuring coordination and creating an operational center, "Erdogan said.
Joaquin Flores is Editor-in-Chief of Fort Russ News, as well as the Director of the Belgrade based think-tank, the Center for Syncretic Studies. Educated at California State University, Los Angeles, in the field of International Relations, he previously served as Chief Negotiator and Internal Organizer in several jurisdictions for the SEIU labor union in California.