The deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his family are, according to a report by the Russian state agency Tass in Moscow arrived.
“Russia gave them for humanitarian reasons Asylum granted,” the agency quoted a Kremlin representative as saying. Details were initially not known. Russia repeatedly grants refuge to overthrown presidents and rulers.
“Russia did not take part in these negotiations”
The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously announced that Assad had resigned from his post in Syria and left the country to allow for a peaceful transfer of power. “Russia did not take part in these negotiations. At the same time, we strongly appeal to all parties involved to refrain from the use of force and to resolve all governance issues through political means.”
Information on the exact whereabouts of Assad, who is always in closest contact with the Kremlin leader Wladimir Putin didn’t exist at first. Moscow is also in contact with the groups in Syria and there is currently no threat to its Russian military bases in the country, Moscow said.
Disappointment and disillusionment in Moscow
Russia has been providing military support to Assad since 2015. Now disillusionment and disappointment spread in Moscow. Under the current conditions of the fully flared civil war, Russia can no longer support Syria, wrote the prominent foreign policy expert and deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, on Telegram. “The Syrians now have to deal with this on their own.”
Moscow will only help if the Syrian people want it, said Kosachev. The war is not over because there are many opposing groups there, including terrorists. What is now particularly important is to ensure the safety of Russian soldiers in Syria as well as the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, he said.
Naval base in Syria strategically important for Moscow
Russia maintains an air base in Syria and a naval base with warships in the Mediterranean port of Tartus. For Russia, its presence there is strategically important because of its access to the Mediterranean. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the bases are on heightened alert, but there is no threat to the soldiers.
The chairman of the defense committee in the Russian parliament, Andrei Kartapolov, said that Moscow’s military stationed in Syria needed to be considered – based on the experience of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the GDR and other countries. Other experts said that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin was now experiencing his “personal Afghanistan” – like when Soviet troops withdrew from the country in 1989.
Discussion about mistakes in Russia
Commentators in Russian media spoke of mistakes Russia made in Syria. Moscow created the conditions for Assad to rebuild the country and bring it out of isolation. But he didn’t do anything with it, they said.
The propagandist Andrei Medvedev from the state broadcaster also spoke of Russia’s mistakes that its opponents had taken advantage of and from which Moscow had to learn. According to Russian media reports, Russia recently had hardly any resources left to counter Assad’s opponents because of its war of aggression against Ukraine.