While the Syrian armed opposition factions were advancing rapidly towards the Syrian capital, Damascus, amid the complete collapse of the Syrian army, Russia realized that time was running out for former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, so it developed a quick plan to transfer him to Moscow.
Quotes”BloombergOn Wednesday, sources reported new details about how Bashar al-Assad was transferred from Damascus to Moscow, while the armed opposition factions were approaching entering the capital and taking control of it, indicating that Russian intelligence managed the operation by transporting al-Assad by air from its air base in Syria.
Three informed sources told Bloomberg that Russia worked to convince Assad that “he would lose the war,” and “offered him and his family safe passage if he left Syria immediately.”
A source close to the Kremlin said, “Putin asked to know why Russian intelligence did not monitor the escalating threat to Assad’s rule.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told NBC News on Tuesday that his country had transferred Assad to Russia “in a very safe way” following the rapid collapse of his regime, but he refused to go into the details of his transfer to Russian territory.
Assad was flown to the Russian base
Two sources told Bloomberg, “Russian intelligence agents organized the escape and transported Assad by air through the Russian air base in Syria.” One of the sources also indicated that “the plane’s transceiver was turned off in order to avoid being tracked.”
Russia has a major air base in Latakia Governorate, and a naval base in Tartous, which is its only repair and maintenance center in the Mediterranean.
Hours after Assad’s departure, last Sunday, the armed factions entered Damascus without resistance from the Syrian army, and announced the overthrow of the previous regime after 13 years of civil war.
Moscow played a major role in supporting the Assad regime and assisting it in the fight against the armed opposition factions by bombing several sites, but with no significant resistance from the Syrian army when the factions took control of the city of Hama days after taking control of Aleppo, Russia concluded at the time that it “could not Protecting the Assad regime, while the factions were advancing towards the strategic city of Homs,” according to a source quoted by Bloomberg.
The right to asylum in Russia
Last Monday, Russia announced that Putin had taken a decision to grant Assad humanitarian asylum, after transferring him to Russia “in a very safe manner.”
“It has been secured, and this shows that Russia is acting as required in such exceptional cases,” Ryabkov stated in his interview with NBC News.
Ryabkov indicated that Russia will continue to support the former Syrian president, who has been accused by the opposition, human rights organizations, and former detainees of “launching attacks with chemical weapons, explosive barrels, and other war crimes,” in addition to “systematic killing, torture, and disappearance of tens of thousands of people” since the beginning of the war. In 2011.
In response to a question about whether the Kremlin would extradite Assad for trial, Ryabkov said, “Russia is not a party to the agreement that established the International Criminal Court.”
The Kremlin announced, on Wednesday, that Russia maintains contacts with those controlling the situation in Syria, and that ensuring the security of Russian military bases and Moscow’s diplomatic missions is “of paramount importance.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “You know, of course, that we are in contact with those who are currently controlling the situation in Syria.”
In response to a question about the extent of the weakness of Russia’s influence in the region after the fall of Assad, Peskov stated that “Moscow maintains its contacts with all countries of the region and will continue to do so.”
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