“The family of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, after the overthrow of his regime and flight to Russia, settled and lives in the elite district of Rublyovka near Moscow, and the former dictator himself “hones his skills in ophthalmology.””, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Ex-president of Syria Bashar Assad and the ruler of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. Photo by Getty Images Source: British newspaper The Guardian citing family friends, sources in Russia and Syria, as well as leaked information about the life of the Syrian dictator’s family
Verbatim edition: “After abandoning the dictatorship in favor of a luxurious exile in Moscow, Assad has … resumed medical education. According to a reliable source, the leader of the last Ba’athist regime in the Middle East is now sitting in a classroom taking an ophthalmology class.”
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The direct speech of a friend of the Assad family: “He (Assad – ed.) is learning the Russian language and improving his knowledge of ophthalmology again… This is his hobby, he clearly does not need money. Even before the start of the war in Syria, he regularly practiced ophthalmology in Damascus.”
According to the newspaper, a year after the fall of the regime in Syria, the Assad family lives an isolated, quiet and luxurious life in Moscow and the UAE.
According to two sources familiar with the situation, the family probably lives in the prestigious Rublyovka district near Moscow. It is believed that the former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, also lives there.
The publication writes that the Assads do not feel a lack of money. After the West imposed sanctions against Assad in 2011 for a bloody crackdown on protests, the Syrian dictator’s family moved most of their wealth to Moscow, where Western regulators could not reach it.
“Despite their comfortable home, the family is cut off from the elite Syrian and Russian circles it once enjoyed. Bashar’s last-minute escape from Syria left his associates feeling abandoned, and his Russian handlers prevent him from contacting high-ranking regime officials,” The Guardian writes.
According to a family friend, Assad lives a “very quiet life” and has “almost no contact with the outside world”, communicating only with a few associates.
A source close to the Kremlin said Assad is also largely “unimportant” to Putin and Russia’s political elite.
“Putin does not tolerate leaders who lose power, and Assad is no longer considered an influential figure or even an interesting guest to invite to dinner,” said the interlocutor of the publication.
According to The Guardian, Assad’s children do not appear to have experienced much of a change as they adjust to their new life as Moscow’s elite.
The only time the Assad family — without Bashar — was seen together in public since the fall of the regime was on June 30 at the graduation ceremony of his daughter, Zine al-Assad, who received a degree in international relations from Moscow State University, the elite Moscow university where most of Russia’s ruling class graduates.
Hafez, once groomed as a potential successor to Bashar al-Assad, has largely disappeared from public view. The publication says that he closed most of his social media accounts, instead registering accounts under a pseudonym taken from an American children’s series about a young detective with dyslexia.
According to a source close to the family, the children and their mother spend most of their time shopping, filling their new Russian home with luxury goods.
Zain al-Assad regularly buys expensive clothes, registered in an elite pedicure salon and is a member of an elite sports club in Moscow.
The newspaper says that Assad’s children also visit the UAE frequently, and their mother, Asma, has joined them on at least one trip.
Read also: In the next Syria: a year after the escape of Assad, the economy of the country did not get any easier
Prehistory:
- On December 8, 2024, the Syrian rebels announced the “liberation” of the capital of Syria, Damascus. The country’s president, Bashar Assad, fled the country.