By Kirill Semenov for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Libya Business News.
Are Russia and Turkey in tug of war over Libya?
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the situation in Syria and Libya in a Dec. 11 phone call.
The Turkish side initiated the conversation to address the countries' emerging differences over Libya that the two were trying to patch up.
A few days earlier, Erdogan had declared his readiness to dispatch soldiers to Libya.
“There is a security company from Russia [in Libya] called Wagner," Erdogan said.
"This company sent its security staff there. On the issue of sending soldiers … if Libya makes such a request from us, we can send our personnel there, especially after striking the military security agreement.”