Stripped of authority and forced from his homeland, Bashar al-Assad has been granted asylum in Russia at the personal direction of Vladimir Putin, marking a dramatic fall from power for the once-dominant Syrian leader. The overthrown dictator, who ruled Syria for over two decades, has fled with his British-born wife Asma and their three adult children, trading their palaces for what amounts to a gilded exile in Moscow.
Putin’s Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed that the decision to shelter Assad was made directly by the Russian president, though Putin has no immediate plans to meet with him. This move effectively ends Assad’s reign and represents a significant geopolitical shift, reducing Syria’s former leader to a dependent of the Russian state.
The Assads’ fall from power comes with substantial financial implications. The U.S. State Department estimated their wealth at approximately $2 billion, with reports suggesting they may have had access to as much as 200 tons of gold and $16 billion. Their extensive network of shell companies and hidden assets, built through years of corruption and illicit economic activities, now faces potential dismantling.
Once celebrated as a glamorous power couple โ even profiled in a now-deleted Vogue article that called them “wildly democratic” โ the Assads now face international condemnation. Their exile marks the end of a five-decade family dynasty that began with Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad, in 1971.
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