Vladimir Putin has granted asylum to Bashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad’s family has arrived in Moscow and has been granted asylum “on humanitarian grounds.”
Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Russian President, stated that such decisions cannot be made without the head of state. That this was Vladimir Putin’s decision.
Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Assad had “decided to resign from the presidency and leave the country, instructing a peaceful transfer of power.”
On Sunday morning, militants entered the city without resistance. The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies declared that “the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has fled.”
It is reported that Assad left the country on December 7 at 3:59 a.m. local time aboard a Syrian Air Ilyushin Il-76T cargo plane heading to an undisclosed destination. According to Flightradar24, the plane initially flew toward the Mediterranean coast, where Russia has two significant bases: the Khmeimim airbase and the Tartus naval base.
After flying over Homs, the plane turned eastward, and its signal disappeared around 4:39 a.m.