Russian sources say the authorities have failed to untangle the identity of the ultimate owner of the money, which – strangely – arrived at the airport without a specified recipient on the consignment.
Why Saddam’s ill-gotten nest egg would have been sent from Germany to Russia four years after he was toppled, and eight months after his execution, is unclear, but this is not the only theory about the money’s origin.
It is claimed that the Iraqi tyrant had shifted £7.5 billion to Moscow in diplomatic bags before he was ousted, yet this was far short of the full wealth he had amassed.
‘There are other possibilities too,’ said a security source last night. Saddam was not the only dictator who funnelled away a fortune: what about Muammar Gaddafi?