OREANDA-NEWS. February 25, 2011. The internal political crisis in Libya has become increasingly acute and highly confrontational.

The insurgents have reportedly taken control of a number of settlements in the East of the country, including Benghazi – the second major city in Libya. In other places, including the capital, the security forces and the supporters of the regime continue to clash with the oppositionists. According to witnesses, yesterday in Tripoli the anti-government demonstrations came under aerial fire. The incidents of armed confrontations having already been reported that entailed many civilian victims.

Moscow is extremely concerned about all those developments, particularly the reported civilian losses. We are convinced that social problems cannot and should not be solved by means of force. In our view, under present conditions the authorities should not use violent and, even more importantly, military means to disperse demonstrations. The current confrontation in Libya needs to be settled by a political approach in order to avoid terrible national disintegration and further escalation of the crisis.

According to our Embassy in Tripoli, there are no victims among Russian citizens staying in Libya.