�UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2020) Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia called on the UN Secretariat on Tuesday to launch an investigation into the leakage of a report by the Panel of Experts on Libya, and insisted that data, mentioning Russian citizens in it, is unfounded.
Earlier in May, a report by the UN experts committee responsible for monitoring Libya sanctions said that the Russian private security firm Wagner has deployed about 1,200 mercenaries in the country to support Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's forces.
"We are dismayed that the confidential report of the panel of experts of the Sanctions Committee was leaked to the press, and we demand investigation of this incident by the UN Secretariat," Nebenzia said in a Security Council meeting on the situation in Libya.
"For the most part, the report is based on unverified, or clearly fabricated data. Much of the data, especially regarding Russian citizens mentioned in the report, is simply unfounded," he added.
Nebenzia said that individuals, mentioned by the report to be fighting in Libya, have not, in fact, left Russia.
He added that Moscow would later provide a more detailed assessment of the findings of the panel of experts.
Libya has been torn apart between the two rival administrations since 2011, when its long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed by US-supported Islamic extremists - the LNA, led by Haftar, controls the east part of Libya and the Government of National Accord (GNA) control's the country's west. The LNA aims to drive away the Turkish-backed GNA from the capital Tripoli.
