Assad's secret life in Moscow: addicted to video games and guarded by spies

MoscowFor months, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's daily life in Moscow has been a mystery. The dictator fled his country on December 8, 2024, as the rebels entered Damascus and put an end to more than fifty years of the Assad family dynasty in power. Within hours, it was learned that Vladimir Putin had granted him political asylum, but since then no one has seen him or heard anything. Until now, an investigation by the German newspaperThe Timehas shed some light on the new life of this autocrat accused of crimes against his people.

A former member of his inner circle has explained to the media that Assad lives in a triple apartment in a luxury skyscraper, with a glass facade, in Moscow's financial district. This neighborhood is located in the west of the city, on the banks of the river, and has seven of the ten tallest buildings in Europe, including that of the former dictator. According to this source, Assad also stays in a villa on the outskirts of the capital.

One of the most surprising revelations is that the former Syrian president "spends hours playing online video games" and sometimes visits the shopping center located on the ground floor of his tower, although no one has ever found him. The Russian secret service, the FSB, has him under surveillance day and night, and this invisibility is precisely one of the conditions imposed by the Kremlin to guarantee his safety.

Last December, Putin merely stated that he intended to meet with Assad, but if this has happened, no photos have emerged. In April, the Russian ambassador in Baghdad did indicate that the former Syrian leader's asylum was "subject to strict conditions," that political activity or public appearances were "undesirable," and that if he didn't stray from the script, "he would be safe."

Poisoning rumors

The lack of transparency surrounding his whereabouts has fueled all kinds of rumors, such as two attempted poisonings, which no official source has confirmed. The first, around New Year's Eve, when profiles allegedly linked to Russian foreign intelligence claimed that one day, the former dictator had suddenly choked, started coughing, and had stomach pain until medical services treated him in the same apartment. The second, on September 20, was reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based NGO. Its president maintains that Assad was admitted for several days to a hospital outside Moscow "not only for food poisoning, but for a poisoning operation."

The Russian government denies that anyone attempted to end the former dictator's life. This week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that "no poisoning occurred" and added: "If such rumors appear, I leave them to the conscience of the person spreading them."

After losing their historic ally in the region, the Kremlin and the new Syrian government are trying to forget that they have been fighting on opposing sides for a decade. On Wednesday, the current president, Ahmed al Sharaa, traveled to Moscow and opened up to maintain Russian military bases in the country, but he also demanded Assad's extradition. However, it seems unlikely that Putin, who welcomed him traumatized by the savage fate of Moammar Gaddafi in Libya, is willing to betray him.

The Assad family

Assad is not alone in Moscow, where he has owned around twenty luxury apartments since 2013. His family is also with him. The former dictator's wife, Asma, was being treated for leukemia in the Russian capital at the time of her husband's flight and now continues to live there. So is Bashar's younger brother, Maher, who has been seen in the city center on occasion and about whom the sourceThe TimeHe claims to live next to Red Square, in the Four Seasons Hotel, where he "spends his time getting drunk and smoking xixa."

Just days before the fall of the regime, one of the couple's sons, Hafez, had defended his doctoral thesis in Mathematics at Moscow State University. In February, the young man unexpectedly posted a video on Instagram strolling through the city center and giving his version of the days leading up to the flight, which coincides with his father's epic account that the Assads had no intention of leaving the country. However, a Reuters investigation revealed that, at least two days before the final escape, Bashar had already been taking money, valuables, and secret documents out of Syria.

Some 1,200 Syrian officers, many of them from the Alawite minority, also moved to Russia with the Assads. "Those who didn't have much money were taken to Siberia, while the wealthy live in Moscow," the German newspaper explains. High-ranking members visit the former leader in his villa on the outskirts of the capital and also enjoy Kremlin protection, although their security is no match for the glass cage where Putin's disgraced former ally lives in comfort.