When Gen. Khalifa Hifter arrived in Moscow on an unannounced visit in late June, experts interpreted it as yet another attempt to secure an arms-transfer deal with the Kremlin. However, the Russian ambassador to Libya was quick to dismiss the speculation. “Unless the Security Council lifts or at least eases the embargo, there can be no talk of Russian weapons deliveries to Libya,” Ambassador Ivan Molotov told Russian journalists.

Hifter's reception in Russia was unusually high profile for such a controversial and divisive figure. He was received by the foreign affairs and defense ministers, but most importantly by Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Security Council, a key decision-making body close to the president. In other words, the message that Hifter received in Moscow likely came from Vladimir Putin himself.

Interpreting Russian interests in Libya purely in terms of the profit it could make from arms trade there would be simplistic. The diplomatic efforts that Moscow has been making on the Libyan front lately are far-reaching for a power that simply wants to sell its weapons. It may in fact be the case that the Kremlin is playing a long game in Libya, seeking a place in its post-conflict political reconstruction. Unlike in Syria, where Russia has had a solid alliance with the Assad family for decades, after Moammar Gadhafi, Moscow did not succeed in finding a loyal political ally in Libya. Many in Moscow believe that Hifter's vast network of supporters and military power could make him Putin’s point man in Libya.

Russia’s political intentions toward Libya are no secret to foreign diplomats in Moscow. As a result of a shake-up within the Russian Foreign Ministry late last year, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who had spearheaded the Kremlin’s push for diplomatic talks over Syria (the Moscow I and II conferences), was put in charge of the Libya file. By the Kremlin’s rules of the game, this appointment means that it is getting serious about diplomacy in Libya, in which case Russia needs a stable and loyal ally there. Hifter seems an ideal candidate for that role because of his military background that helps him share a language with the officials in the Kremlin, most of whom, like Hifter, received Soviet military training.