Deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad claimed on Monday that he had no intention of leaving Syria and was forced to flee the country by Russia, in what appears to be his first statement on the fall of his regime since he fled to Moscow nine days ago.
In the statement published on the Syrian presidency’s Telegram channel and purporting to be from Assad, the ousted dictator said his departure was “neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles” between Syrian government forces and the opposition groups who toppled his regime.
According to Assad, he remained in Damascus until the morning of 8 December, when “terrorist forces infiltrated” the capital and he retreated to a Russian military base on the country’s Mediterranean coast “in coordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations”.
When the Hmeimim air base itself was besieged shortly after his arrival and “with no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia” on the evening of 8 December, Assad said.
“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party”, he claimed, adding that he had intended to “continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught”.
Assad’s account of events directly contradicts that of the Russian Foreign Ministry on 8 December, when it announced that Assad had voluntarily stepped down as president and left Syria, having instructed his officials in Damascus to undertake a peaceful transfer of power.
On Sunday, a Financial Times report revealed that Assad had flown around $250 million in cash to Russia between 2018 and 2019 in an attempt to circumvent Western sanctions on his regime over the Syrian Civil War, with his family subsequently embarking on a “buying spree of luxury properties” in Moscow.
As uncertainty over the Kremlin’s military presence in Syria continues, the FT also reported on Sunday that Russia had moved more than 400 of its troops from Damascus to the Hmeimim air base amid “ongoing” discussions with Syria’s transitional government about withdrawing more Russian troops from the country.