Deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad now spends hours playing video games while living in a luxury tower block in central Moscow. He remains out of sight and is guarded by security operatives loyal to Vladimir Putin.
Branded the “Butcher” for all the Syrians he massacred, his huge heated bath in front of a 13ft window frontage in a 990ft skyscraper enjoys one of the finest views in Moscow. “On Victory Day on May 9, you can watch the fireworks from the bathtub with a glass of champagne,” Natasha, who sells penthouses in the same tower in the Moscow City district, told De Zeit newspaper. The bathroom is made entirely of Carrara marble, which, according to some estimates, costs up to £60 per square foot. The ousted tyrant, 60, has taken a “vow of silence” almost a year after arriving in Moscow when his regime collapsed during a major offensive by opposition forces – but he and his large extended family are reportedly living well.
The Assads “are in a good place and are enjoying the money they stole. The Syrian people mean nothing to them”, a source only identified as H, told the German newspaper, which made the new claims.
The Assads, including his cancer-stricken British-born former first lady Asma, 50, live in “three apartments in a luxury high-rise with a mall downstairs, which he sometimes visits.
“Otherwise he spent hours playing online video games.
“He also often stayed in his villa outside Moscow.”
The skyscraper penthouse is “lavishly decorated — cream-coloured wardrobes with gold trim, crystal chandeliers, and wide sofas reminiscent of Middle Eastern palaces”.
The source claims that Assad and his family were “able to move freely in Moscow”.
“They employed bodyguards from a private security company paid by the Russian government.”
His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, which was considered cured until the cancer returned, this time as leukaemia, last year. She was already in Moscow, undergoing treatment, when her husband’s regime was toppled. Her condition is now seen as “serious”.
The new glimpse into the Assad family’s alleged life in Moscow follows reports that he was poisoned in an attempted assassination and required hospital treatment. The source for this was the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which claimed the motive behind the assassination operation was “to embarrass the Russian Government and accuse it of being complicit” in his death.
The Putin regime – which granted al-Assad political asylum – has not commented.
Assad’s younger brother, Maher, is said to live in the Four Seasons Hotel, close to the Kremlin, and “spends his time getting drunk and smoking shisha”, according to the De Zeit source.
Assad remains a wanted man by the new government in Syria, which issued an arrest warrant on charges of premeditated murder, torture, and incitement to civil war.
The warrant issued a precise description of him as “1.89 metres tall, oval face, prominent forehead, long nose. Eye color: Blue. Hair color: Brown.”
On December 8, 2024, the Assad regime collapsed during a major offensive by opposition forces. The offensive was spearheaded by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and supported mainly by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army as part of the Syrian civil war that began with the Syrian revolution in 2011. The capture of Syria’s capital, Damascus, marked the end of the Assad family’s rule, which had governed Syria as a hereditary totalitarian dictatorship since Hafez al-Assad assumed power in 1971.