When I learned about the scheduled trip of Vladimir Putin to Libya, suddenly reminiscences of the sparkling childhood came to my mind: together with my parents, I lived in the diplomatic area of Tripoli, Libya’s capital, in the early 1980s. Totally I spent there three years full of unusual for a Soviet kid impressions.  

My farther was working in the embassy as an interpreter, and my mom was sort of an accountant there. In the morning they used to leave our apartment for heavily air conditioned offices located not far from the picturesque sea-front, and I, too sleepy in early hours (the terrific heat made us get up at 6.00 or even 5.00 a.m.!), was making my way to the yard, where we were playing soccer with youngsters from all the Socialist states represented in Libya. There were several Poles, Czechs, two or three Hungarians and a dozen of Soviets (or Russians as we have always been called).  

So, when I hear anything about Libya, I find my heart (and head) full of nearly forgotten but immediately recollected emotions and impressions.

The same happened to me when the Russian President’s office unveiled the news on the Putin's coming visit to Tripoli, during which he and a gigantic team of tycoons and bureaucrats were to discuss the $4.6 billion debt of Libya to Soviet Union. Soviet Union? Yes, Soviet Union, because when the UN sanctions were brought in power, Russia cut off all the ties to Muammar Qaddafi who remained alone with the Western states looking for ways to, firstly, slow down the expansion of the terrorist threat and, secondly, to get wider access to the oil-rich Libyan land.

Commentators have pointed out that unlike Arab sheikhs from the Persian Gulf countries who regard a magnificent palace as one of the marks of prestige, the Bedouin Qaddafi hates and rejects luxury. He is believed to live and work in a special tent installed inside an official residency. 
However, a few of them know about the mammoth complex of secure and comfortable buildings that can give rest to the leader of the Green Revolution whenever he likes.  

The trip’s results seem at first glance, as far as I know from the talks with the insiders in the government, not very successful for the Russian side: negotiations on the purchase of Russian-made armament would proceed, no immediate purchase was sealed. But one should pay more attention to several promising contracts signed by Libya with Russian companies.

One of them (and in my opinion crucial) is a railway contract to build a 500-kilometer railroad between Sirt and Benghazi estimated at 2.2 billion euros. According to Russia’s Finance Ministry the contract will finance 70% of Libya’s purchases of plant and equipment in Russia. And this is the greatest success of the domestic civil machine building industry, which unlike the defense sector, in despair has been looking for any foreign contracts since the late 1980s.

Another important thing is that the two countries, former allies, agreed to continue strengthening friendship and developing cooperation. This means: Russia is catching up with the U.S. and other Western countries in Northern Africa getting back its political, cultural and economic influence.

…Sometimes, when in the evening I’m sitting relaxed in the office chair having turned off my computer, I close my eyes and see the beautiful African sunset and myself standing amazed on the top of the building in Tripoli...