Russia confirms taking in ex-Syrian president: ‘Breaking news! Bashar al-Assad and his family in Moscow’

Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source tells Russian news agencies, adding that a deal has been made to ensure the safety of Russian military bases.

Earlier today, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that Assad had left Syria and given orders for a peaceful transfer of power, after rebel fighters raced into Damascus unopposed on Sunday morning, ending nearly six decades of his family’s iron-fisted rule.

“Syrian President Assad of Syria and members of his family have arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds,” the privately-owned Interfax news agency and state media quote the unnamed Kremlin source as saying.

Interfax cites the same Kremlin source as saying Russia favors a political solution led by the UN to the crisis in Syria, where Moscow supported Assad during the long civil war.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, writes on his Telegram channel: “Breaking news! Bashar al-Assad and his family in Moscow. Russia does not betray friends in difficult situations.”

Syrian opposition leaders had agreed to guarantee the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria, the source tells news agencies. But some Russian war bloggers say the situation around the bases was extremely tense and the source does not say how long the security guarantee lasted.

Moscow, a staunch backer of Assad whom it intervened to help in 2015 in its biggest Middle East foray since the Soviet collapse, is scrambling to salvage its position. Its geopolitical clout in the wider region and two strategically important military bases in Syria are on the line.