President Assad, his British-born spouse and their three grownup kids have left behind their Syrian palaces and can start a brand new life in Russia after being granted asylum by Vladimir Putin.
Asma Al-Assad, a London-born physician’s daughter who married into the brutal autocratic dynasty, has develop into accustomed to a lifetime of luxurious, with studies that she spent tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} on residence furnishings and garments throughout her husband’s reign of terror.
The US state division estimates that the household are value $2billion, with their wealth hid in quite a few accounts, shell firms, offshore tax havens and actual property portfolios.
Now they’re seemingly to attract on their household connections and intensive property in Moscow within the hope of maintaining their snug way of life in exile.
The Syrian dictator’s prolonged household purchased up no less than 20 Moscow flats value greater than £30 million lately, illustrating Russia’s standing as a protected haven for the clan.
The Kremlin at the moment confirmed that the household was given asylum on the direct orders of Putin. Moscow disclosed no additional particulars, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov telling reporters at the moment: ‘We’ve got nothing to say about Assad’s whereabouts.’
Mrs Assad, who has been battling an aggressive type of leukaemia, is extensively believed to have arrived in Moscow together with her daughter and two sons days earlier than her husband lastly fled Syria.
Secret tunnels beneath an Assad household mansion have been reportedly uncovered after rebels seized the capital Damascus on Sunday, with the community serving as a doable escape route for the dictator and his allies.
In the meantime studies have urged that Assad may have fled by way of Russia’s Khmeimim airbase, with flight trackers reportedly displaying a Russian aircraft taking off from close to the north-eastern metropolis of Latakia simply hours earlier than he was reported to be in Moscow.
Assad’s prolonged household reportedly bought no less than 18 luxurious flats within the Metropolis of Capitals complicated (pictured), positioned in Moscow’s glittering skyscraper district
Asma Al-Assad, a London-born physician’s daughter who married into the brutal autocratic dynasty, has develop into accustomed to a lifetime of luxurious
The Assads, their daughter daughter Zein and son Karim will now all be in Russia with Hafez
The autumn of the Assad regime in Syria is extensively seen as being a serious embarrassment for Putin
The unopposed takeover of the Syrian capital after a lightning offensive by insurgent teams on Sunday dropped at an finish a 13-year civil conflict and 6 many years of the Assad household’s autocratic rule.
It has additionally been deeply embarrassing for Putin, after Moscow pumped army and monetary help and bombed Syria for years to assist prop up the Assad regime.
Russian media yesterday quoted an unnamed supply within the Kremlin as saying: ‘Assad and members of his household have arrived in Moscow. Russia, based mostly on humanitarian concerns, has granted them asylum.’
The Assad household have robust private ties to the Russian capital, with the ousted president’s eldest son a PhD candidate at Moscow State College.
Hafez al-Assad, who’s in his early 20s, defended his dissertation at MSU and have become a candidate of bodily and mathematical sciences, Russian media studies.
The protection reportedly came about on November 29 – in the course of the offensive of Syrian rebels on the second largest metropolis of Syria, Aleppo.
It’s doable that Assad may have been on an unannounced go to to Moscow on the time. The Kremlin refused to touch upon whether or not he or his spouse had visited the nation.
Mrs Assad beforehand attended her son’s commencement in June 2023, with photos displaying her hugging him in entrance of MSU’s primary constructing and assembly with college officers.
Hafez al-Assad’s work is written in Russian and is 98 pages lengthy. It’s dedicated to analytical and algebraic quantity concept, specifically problems with polynomials.
On the finish of the dissertation, Al-Assad expressed gratitude ‘to the martyrs of his homeland – Syria – and initially to the martyrs of the Syrian Arab Military.’
He additionally expressed gratitude to his mother and father, Bashar and Asma, to the rector of Moscow State College, Viktor Sadovnichy, to the college employees, and to academics and lecturers from Syria.
The household – together with 21-year-old daughter Zein and son Karim, aged 20 – are actually prone to reside in Russia with Hafez, although it’s unclear whether or not they’ll reside in a personal property or be compelled to remain in a authorities safehouse.
Regardless of the case, they’re prone to count on some degree of luxurious given their earlier dwelling situations and inordinate wealth.
To maintain tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} out of Syria because the nation’s civil conflict raged, the household reportedly bought no less than 18 luxurious flats within the Metropolis of Capitals complicated (pictured)
The 2-towered skyscraper is residence to a few of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen, authorities ministries, five-star resorts and multinational firms
In 2012, Wikileaks disclosed Mrs Assad’s non-public correspondence, which confirmed that she spent $350,000 on the palace’s furnishings and $7,000 on crystal-encrusted sneakers.
Assad’s family the Makhlouf household, headed by his uncle Mohammed Makhlouf, have lengthy been thought of Syria’s second wealthiest and most necessary after his and have important property in Russia.
To maintain tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} out of Syria because the nation’s civil conflict raged, the household reportedly bought no less than 18 luxurious flats within the Metropolis of Capitals complicated, positioned in Moscow’s glittering skyscraper district.
The 2-towered skyscraper – which till the revealing of London’s Shard in 2012 was Europe’s tallest constructing – is residence to a few of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen, authorities ministries, five-star resorts and multinational firms.
The ostentatious constructing may now develop into residence to the Assads as they start a brand new life in exile.
It comes after Syrian rebels ransacked the Assad household’s palaces and claimed to have revealed a community of secret escape tunnels on Sunday.
A video claiming to point out Main Normal Maher al-Assad’s ‘mansion’ exhibits a white staircase minimize into the ground, spiralling underground in what seems to be an enormous community of luxurious tunnels and bunkers.
The Assad household’s secret escape tunnels have been revealed after Syrian rebels have been left surprised by the massive luxurious underground community
A video claiming to point out Main Normal Maher al-Assad’s ‘mansion’ exhibits the tunnels
The footage, stated to have been snapped by a insurgent, then cuts to point out an unlimited community of empty, broad tunnels with tall, curved ceilings.
Maher al-Assad – who’s the deposed President’s brother and is understood for his ruthlessness – holds a rank equal to main basic and leads the elite Fourth Division of the Syrian military.
The video was captioned: ‘Large tunnel complicated beneath Maher Assad’s mansion, broad sufficient for vehicles carrying Captagon and gold to drive by way of.’
One other claimed the tunnels have been ‘prepared with air flow, sitting rooms, bedrooms, locks and steel doorways’.
