Kremlin Declines to Provide Information on Assad’s Stay in Russia

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the Russian presidency cannot provide any details regarding the whereabouts of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Moscow, nor whether he has held any meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Responding to a journalist’s question on the matter, Peskov said: “No, we cannot share any information on this topic.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had stated last October that Moscow had hosted Assad and his family for “humanitarian reasons,” citing direct threats to their lives. He said at the time: “We provided protection for him and his family when there were serious risks to their safety.”

In February, Assad’s son, Hafez, appeared in a video circulated on social media, in which he was seen walking through an upscale neighborhood in Moscow and speaking about the final days before the regime’s collapse. He said: “We had not planned to leave Syria, but Russia urgently transferred us to Moscow after the fall of Damascus.”

It is worth noting that in late November 2024, armed groups launched a large-scale attack on Syrian army positions before entering Damascus on December 8, prompting Assad to resign and leave the country with his family.