Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family have reportedly been granted asylum in Moscow following his ousting, according to Russian state media TASS on Sunday evening.
TASS, citing “a source in the Kremlin,” said Russia had granted asylum for the Assad family out of “humanitarian considerations.”
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“Russia has always spoken in favor of a political settlement of the Syrian crisis. We insist that the UN-mediated talks be resumed,” the source told TASS.
Moscow has maintained a military presence in Syria since 2016 that supported Assad in his crackdowns on opposing factions.
Assad had ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than two decades, albeit relying on backing from Tehran and Moscow in recent years, but the regime fell on Sunday morning as rebels marched into the country’s capital Damascus following a lightning offensive.
The overthrowing of Assad marked an important chapter in the Syrian Civil War that started in 2011 and rekindled a conflict that has largely remained quiet in recent years, prompting concerns of widespread uncertainty in the region where some are hopeful for liberal changes, some fearful of extremist resurgence.
How did Assad end up in Moscow?
Assad remains nowhere to be seen at the time of publication, with only the TASS report claiming that he and his family had sought refuge in Moscow.
However, it is believed that the Assad family fled Damascus in the early hours of Sunday by plane as the rebels encircled Damascus.
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights spokesperson, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP that Assad fled Syria via Damascus International Airport before the army security forces left.
Media reports have linked Assad’s escape to an Ilyushin Il-76 transport operated by Syrian Air that departed Damascus at 1:55 a.m. UTC. The flight, numbered RB9218, subsequently disappeared from radar and led to speculations that it crashed or was shot down while en-route to an unknown destination.
Flight Global, citing commercially available flight data, said the jet flew directly over the rebel-controlled city of Homs “before abruptly reversing course as it reached Syria’s coastal mountain range,” where it disappeared whilst flying towards Homs again.
However, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) issued a statement prior to the TASS report that the disappearance was “disinformation” staged by Moscow to “cover up its operation to rescue the Syrian leader,” where the crew “were following Russian instructions and flying under their direction.”
Kyiv Post cannot independently verify if Assad and his family were onboard the plane based on available information.
Why Moscow?
Israel’s war in Gaza and the resulting developments left Assad with no real options to seek refuge within the Middle East.
His regime had three major backers – Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Tehran, and Moscow, all of which are currently engulfed in their own conflicts.
Israeli strikes have devastated the Hezbollah group and effectively decapitated the group’s command structure; Tehran, itself a major backer of Hezbollah, has also been focused on the conflict with Israel.
The degraded capabilities of Hezbollah and Tehran are evidenced by their meager support for the Syrian authorities in the face of the Syrian rebels’ lightning offensive. Hezbollah sent a paltry 2,000-strong contingent to help fend off the rebels’ offensive with little to no impact.
Israel, a bitter rival of Syria, has also demonstrated its ability to conduct precision strikes inside Lebanon and Iran. leaving Russia as the only safe place of refuge for the deposed Syrian leader.
Ironically, Assad once said in 2014 that he would not flee like the then-deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who also sought protection in Russia.
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