The deposed Syrian dictator and his family fled to Moscow with a fortune of at least £1.5bn and an uncertain future amid the ruins of their own country and their new life as Putin's exiled guests
The deposed Syrian dictator and his family fled to Moscow with a fortune of at least £1.5bn and an uncertain future amid the ruins of their own country and their new life as Putin's exiled guests
But for all its clandestine qualities, the arrival in Moscow of the Assad clan, including it would seem Asma’s UK-based parents after their modest pebble-dashed house in west London was left empty this week, had long been planned for.over a period of years, increasingly embracing not only the Putin regime but also the practicalities of a life in Moscow during multiple visits.
According to a 2022 report by the US State Department, the Assad family fortune is estimated to be worth at least $2bn . Other estimates, some of them suggested to be informed by data from British intelligence, have put the figure at as much $16bn in cash and some 200 tons of gold.In its report to Congress, the State Department said the Assads’ funds had been acquired from “illicit economic activities, including smuggling, arms trading,, and protection and extortion rackets”.
Gennady Gudkov, a former Russian MP and KGB officer who is a critic of Putin, said the Assads now fit into a long-standing pattern of authoritarian leaders within the Russian or Soviet orbit who have found themselves taking comfortable shelter in the woods of Rublyovka or elsewhere.
Other observers pointed out that Bashar, who had visited Moscow as a child with his father in the 1980s, is returning to city changed by the cronyism of the Putin era.The late Queen Elizabeth II receives Bashar and Asma al-Assad at Buckingham Palace in 2002
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