Exiled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is alleged to spend his days taking part in video video games and brushing up on his ophthalmology abilities in his luxurious Moscow flat and nation villa after being granted asylum by Vladimir Putin.
The deposed ruler, branded the ‘Butcher’ for killing his personal individuals, has discovered a brand new life in a luxurious 1000ft tower after fleeing Syria when he was toppled in December, bringing an finish to 24 years of brutal dictatorship.
The 60-year-old is believed to stay in three flats in a luxurious high-rise with a mall downstairs within the Moscow Metropolis district, a glittering enterprise centre within the coronary heart of the Russian capital.
The skyscraper penthouse is ‘lavishly adorned — cream-coloured wardrobes with gold trim, crystal chandeliers, and broad sofas harking back to Center Japanese palaces’.
The ostentatious complicated, the place his household owns round 20 flats value greater than £30million throughout three flooring, is hooked up to a shopping center, which he generally visits.
The brutal dictator fled to Russia after a lightning offensive led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in December introduced a 13-year civil battle to an finish, in addition to six many years of the Assad household’s autocratic rule.
Since then, he has resumed his coaching as a watch physician to deal with the elite of Moscow, the town he now calls residence following his deposal, a supply near the household has claimed.
A buddy of his household informed the Guardian: ‘He’s finding out Russian and brushing up on his ophthalmology once more.
Bashar Al-Assad (pictured) was referred to as the ‘Butcher’ of his nation for the brutality of his therapy of his individuals
Assad now lives together with his cancer-stricken British spouse Asma Al-Assad, sons Hafez and Karim, aged 24 and 21, and 22-year-old daughter Zein
Exiled Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad reportedly spends his days taking part in video video games in his luxurious Moscow flat
‘It’s a ardour of his, he clearly doesn’t want the cash. Even earlier than the battle in Syria started, he used to recurrently observe his ophthalmology in Damascus’.
He educated in ophthalmology in London within the early Nineteen Nineties, however was recalled again to his residence nation following the surprising loss of life of his brother in a automotive crash in 1994.
Shortly after, he entered navy academy and took over because the inheritor obvious to the regime.
Now he spends a lot of his time taking part in on-line video video games, regardless of being freely allowed to maneuver round Moscow and his nation villa outdoors of the Russian capital.
He has been supplied with bodyguards from a non-public safety agency paid by the Russian authorities.
The buddy mentioned he now lives ‘a really quiet life’, including: ‘He has little or no, if any, contact with the skin world. He’s solely in contact with a few individuals who had been in his palace, like Mansour Azzam [former Syrian minister of presidency affairs] and Yassar Ibrahim [Assad’s top economic crony].’
A part of this comes from Putin’s obvious dismissal of al-Assad following the autumn of the regime in Syria.
A supply near the Kremlin informed the newspaper: ‘Putin has little persistence for leaders who lose their grip on energy, and Assad is now not seen as a determine of affect and even an fascinating visitor to ask to dinner’.
Photos of Assad sporting speedos has generated ridicule on social media following the autumn of his regime
One image discovered following the regime’s fall exhibits Assad in nothing however white pants and a vest, clearly posing for the digital camera
An image believed to be exhibiting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sporting solely speedos is taken by Rebels following the seize of his palace in Aleppo
Footage of flats within the complicated present luxurious fittings and high-end furnishings, in addition to panoramic views of Moscow (illustrative image exhibits an condominium within the constructing)
Be part of the controversy
Ought to exiled dictators like Assad be allowed to stay in luxurious whereas their individuals undergo?
Assad now lives together with his cancer-stricken British spouse Asma Al-Assad, sons Hafez and Karim, aged 24 and 21, and 22-year-old daughter Zein.
Asma, who was born in London and married into the brutal autocratic dynasty in 2000, is described as being in a ‘severe’ situation from her leukaemia.
She has develop into accustomed to a lifetime of luxurious, with stories that she spent lots of of hundreds of {dollars} on residence furnishings and garments throughout her husband’s reign of terror.
Their plush Moscow pad gives comparable opulence, with a 20-metre-high foyer flooded with gentle and adorned with trendy artwork. There are sofas, partitions, and a welcome drink for guests.
They’ve an enormous heated tub in entrance of a 13ft window in a 990ft skyscraper which enjoys one of many best views in Moscow.
The toilet is made fully of Carrara marble.
‘On Victory Day on Could 9, you may watch the fireworks from the tub with a glass of champagne,’ Natasha, who sells penthouses in the identical tower within the Moscow Metropolis district, informed De Zeit.
The Assads ‘are in an excellent place and are having fun with the cash they stole. The Syrian individuals imply nothing to them,’ the German newspaper, citing Syrian sources, reported.
Assad’s youthful brother Maher reportedly stays on the 4 Seasons Resort in Moscow and spends his time ingesting and smoking hookah.
Revelations of the household’s luxurious life in Moscow emerged as the Putin regime was compelled to disclaim that Assad had been poisoned in an assassination try.
One picture exhibits him in a khaki hunter costume with a gun and fur accent, standing alongside mates who’re additionally in costume
These photographs seem to point out the 59-year-old as a younger man within the 80s and 90s
The autumn of the Assad regime in Syria was broadly seen as being a serious embarrassment for Putin, who supplied him refuge
A basic view exhibits lots of of individuals gathered in Al-Assi Sq. throughout celebrations marking one 12 months for the reason that metropolis’s liberation, in Hama, Syria, December 5, 2025
Russian overseas minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that the previous Damascus despot ‘has no issues residing in our capital’.
Rumours of a meals poisoning which led to Assad being hospitalised unfold in late September.
However Lavrov mentioned the next month: ‘There have been no poisonings, and if such rumours seem, I depart them on the conscience of those that unfold them.’
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed citing a ‘non-public supply’ that Assad had been hospitalised on the outskirts of Moscow.
The supply claimed that Assad ‘had been poisoned’ and that the motive behind the assassination operation was ‘to embarrass the Russian authorities and accuse it of being complicit’ in his loss of life.
The report mentioned Assad’s situation was ‘steady’ after hospitalisation.
Lavrov additionally sought to justify Putin rescuing Assad from the revolution engulfing Syria and giving him a protected haven.
‘Bashar Assad is right here for humanitarian causes. He and his household had been going through bodily destruction,’ he mentioned.
‘All of us keep in mind the destiny of [Libyan leader] Muammar Gaddafi, which so delighted Hillary Clinton, who watched his bodily destruction stay on tv and applauded.
‘And we, for purely humanitarian causes, have granted asylum to Bashar Assad and his household. He has no issues residing in our capital.
His spouse was recognized with breast most cancers in 2018 which was thought of cured till the most cancers returned as leukaemia in 2024.
She was already in Moscow present process therapy when her husband’s regime was toppled.
Their son Hafez, 23, who studied in Moscow, has informed of the household’s escape from Damascus after Putin’s navy pulled them simply earlier than they had been engulfed by the revolution.
He admitted the downfall of the regime had come as a shock.
‘There was by no means a plan – not even a backup – to depart Damascus, not to mention Syria,’ he admitted in a video, now deleted.
A Syrian insurgent fires a weapon into the air to have a good time the insurgent takeover of Damascus, in Homs, Syria, early December 8, 2024
Smoke rises after Syrian rebels took over Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024
‘After consulting with Moscow, base command knowledgeable us that our switch to Russia had been requested.
‘A while later, we boarded a Russian navy airplane certain for Moscow, the place we landed that very same evening.’
Assad stays a wished man by the brand new authorities in Syria, which issued an arrest warrant on expenses of premeditated homicide, torture, and incitement to civil battle.
The warrant issued a exact description of him as ‘1.89 metres tall, oval face, distinguished brow, lengthy nostril. Eye shade: Blue. Hair shade: Brown.’
