Gaddafi officials headed to Moscow

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that representatives of Moammar Gaddafi’s Libyan government are due to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday.

Envoys from rebel-held Benghazi were due to arrive the next day but had to postpone their trip for “technical reasons,” he said, without explaining further.

I wonder who it will be? Maybe Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, once the West’s "reformist" darling. His last known visit to Moscow came in June last year, when he brought an exhibit of his paintings (titled “The Desert is Not Silent”) to the Russian capital. The highlight, by the way, was said to be “Paper Tiger” (2001), a painting of his late favorite pet tiger. “It is good here,” Gaddafi said at the time. “We are friends.”

Last week, Lavrov called for political negotiations to bring an end to NATO’s intervention in Libya. Russia, as a rule, is against foreign interventions (putting aside the pesky exception of South Ossetia) and has voiced opposition to the West’s actions in Libya, while warning on similar action in places like Syria.

Some Russians continue to feel affinity for Gaddafi’s government. Some appearing at Communist rallies have held aloft posters in support of him (photo, right), while some have sprayed graffiti and put stickers on their cars (this one reads: In support of Gaddafi and his people!).