“There is a new class of wealthy war traders,” said Mazen, an Aleppo businessman from an old industrial family. The old guard call these people “new faces”. “We don’t know how they make money,” he continued. “Sometimes we ask ourselves if we’re in the wrong business.”
These individuals have made fortunes picking clean the carcass of the country’s economy. From melting down steel ripped from its shattered cities to brokering oil deals forbidden under international sanctions, to selling hotel rooms to aid workers, following the money leads us into the dark dealings of today’s Syria.
Their dramatic rise to fortune has also helped the regime to survive by keeping trade going, oil flowing and helping to fund pro-regime militias, even as the country lies in ruins around them."
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:
https://www.ft.com/content/525ec4e4-e4a3-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc
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