Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday, and an agreement was reached to secure Russian military bases.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry earlier said Assad had left Syria and ordered a peaceful transfer of power after rebels stormed Damascus unopposed on Sunday, ending his family’s nearly six-decade iron rule.
“Syrian President Assad and members of his family arrived in Moscow. “Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds,” the Interfax news agency reported, citing an anonymous source in the Kremlin.
According to the same source, Russia favors a political solution to the crisis in Syria, where Moscow supported Assad during the long civil war.
Moscow, a strong supporter of Assad whom it helped in 2015 in his biggest invasion of the Middle East since the collapse of the Soviet Union, is struggling to maintain its position with its geopolitical weight in the region and two strategic military bases in Syria at stake. .
A deal to secure Russia’s Khmeimim airbase in Syria’s Latakia province and the Tartus naval facility on the coast would come as a relief to Moscow after Russian military bloggers, some close to the Russian Defense Ministry, warned the bases were under dangerous threat. .
The Tartus facility is Russia’s only repair and supply center in the Mediterranean, and Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to ship its military contractors to and from Africa.
According to Western military analysts, the loss of Tartus would be a serious blow to Russia’s ability to project its influence in the Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa.
Disappearance of the flag
On Sunday morning, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that two military installations had been placed on high alert, but downplayed the immediate risk to them.
“There is currently no serious threat to his security,” the ministry said in announcing Assad’s departure from office and Syria.
“As a result of negotiations between B. Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, he decided to resign as president and left the country, giving instructions for the peaceful transfer of power,” the statement says.
“Russia did not participate in these negotiations.”
Unconfirmed media reports said Assad was visiting Moscow, where his eldest son was studying, when the rebels arrived in Aleppo late last month before returning to Syria. The Kremlin then refused to comment on this issue.
The Syrian flag was removed from the flagpole in front of the country’s embassy in Moscow on Sunday, Reuters reporters noted. TASS, citing embassy employees, reported that on Monday the embassy will work as usual.
The Foreign Ministry said that Moscow is alarmed by the developments in Syria.
“We call on all parties involved to refrain from using violence and to resolve all issues of governance through political means,” their statement said.
“In this regard, the Russian Federation is in contact with all Syrian opposition groups.”
He also said he was doing everything possible to ensure the safety of Russian citizens in Syria, who were advised by the embassy on Friday to leave the country. The Russian embassy in Damascus told state news agency TASS on Sunday that its staff were “all right.”