CrossFireArabia
Bashar Al Assad sometimes walks the streets of Moscow incognito. This was a prerequisite set by the Kremlin for his stay in Russia.
The Syrian president, who was forced into exile, exactly one year ago on 8 December, 2024, lives in one of Moscow’s top palatial flats in the capital’s business district with his wife and three children with 24-hour body guards who have been assigned to the family for their protection.
Since his stay Moscow, the message has been thrust forward that Moscow takes care of its friends even when they have fallen from grace and/or down in the dumps. Bashar Al Assad, and his father before and who held power since 1970 were always the strongest of allies and Damascus was always seen as Russia’s strategic gateway to the Middle East.
Friendship however doesn’t mean the end of political opportunism and interest. Whilst Assad is allowed to stay in Moscow under the rubric of humanitarian grounds, his asylum follows strict rules: he is not allowed to engage in any political activity nor is he allowed to talk to the press or the media.
He is no longer treated as presidential but a private person. Russian president Vladimir Putin had never met him since he arrived in Moscow nor is he planning to despite claiming otherwise. All Putin would say is he is planning to meet the ex-president ‘sometime’ in the future. Add insult to injury is the fact that Assad has been assigned a lowly figure in the Russian Foreign Ministry as a means of coordination whenever it’s necessary.
But this has long proved a sign of frustration. Today, Assad is alone despite his staff that either travelled with him when he was hastily bungled up last year on a military jet from a Russian airbase near Latakia last year or joined him latter in his residence to start his exile.
With little to do, he spends his days playing video games or going downstairs to the mall in his plush complex to wile his time away, doing it day after day after day. The strong man of Syria, at the top of the helm for the 24 years with ministers, officials, politicians and Ba’ath Party – for theoretically it was this pan-Arab institution that ruled Syria since the late 1960s – is no more.
In Moscow he is a guest with his brother, Maher Al Assad, a former strong man and previous head of the Republican Guard who is staying at the capital’s Four Seasons Hotel. Today they have little political sway with the Kremlin preferring they stay as low as possible and ‘out of sight out of mind’ because of Moscow’s new strategic plans with the new government of Syria lead by previous Al Qaeda extremist-turned-president Ahmad Al Sharaa.
Putin wants to maintain a rapport with the new government because Syria is still seen as the new battleground of political rivalry vis-a-vis the United States, Turkey and Israel. Moscow wants to continue to be a part of the geo-political pie despite the fact that Al Shara has continually called on Moscow to handover Assad to be tried for criminal charges in Damascus, something that was always refused by the Kremlin and Putin.
But politics reflects the interests of both sides for Sharaa wants to be a favorite with everyone, both the West and Russia as demonstrated by his last visit to Moscow last October who continues to have military, strategic, economic and aid ties to Syria from the past Baathist regime.
Thus, although relegated to his luxurious apartments, Assad can still be a valuable political asset to Moscow, being put on hold for the right time as a political chip to be used with the new government of Syria who is desperate to create the needed stability of the country, keep outside powers at bay, check Israeli incursion into its territory and start a program of reconstruction and economic development.
