Deposed dictator's new life: "Gamer" in Moscow

Russia

Assad's secret new life: "Gamer" in Moscow

TT

Updated 06.40 | Published 05.45

 

Syria's former president Bashar al-Assad will visit Moscow in March 2023. Photo: Sana Via AP/TT

He ordered nerve gas against his own population - now he spends his days playing online games in a skyscraper in Moscow.

Syria's deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad is living a good life under Vladimir Putin's protection, according to a review by Germany's Die Zeit.

In the middle of Moscow's business district, two futuristic skyscrapers stretch into the sky. Here, right next to the Moskva River, the "Butcher of Damascus" is said to have taken refuge when his reign of terror in Syria fell last year, according to several consistent reports.

Starting in 2013, the al-Assad family is said to have bought around 20 apartments in the towers, according to Franceinfo for a price of just under two million dollars each.

The entrance hall has a ceiling height of 20 meters, reports Die Zeit, which entered the building together with a real estate agent. The newspaper is shown an apartment equivalent to al-Assad's: crystal chandeliers, precious wood, Carrara marble bathrooms and floor-to-ceiling windows.

- The al-Assad family is doing well and enjoying the money they stole, says a source to Die Zeit, a man called "H" who is said to have previously been part of al-Assad's inner circle.

 

Bashar al-Assad shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in July 2024, barely five months before the Syrian dictator fled his homeland with Russian help. Photo: Valery Sjarifulin/Sputnik, Pool Via AP/TT

Moved money

From his contacts in the army – officers who, like al-Assad, fled Syria – “H” has been told that the former dictator can move freely in Moscow, flanked by bodyguards financed by the Russian government. However, he seems to mostly stay inside.

– He lives in three apartments in a luxury high-rise building (...) and spends hours playing online games. He is also often in his villa outside Moscow, says “H”.

So there is money. According to the Financial Times, the al-Assad family moved $250 million, over 2.3 billion Swedish kronor, to Russia between March 2018 and September 2019. Two tons of $100 and $500 banknotes were reportedly brought to Moscow on a total of 20 flights. The luxury apartments in the Russian capital were acquired via a complex structure of companies, credit institutions and shell companies, according to the British newspaper.

 

Here, in the "City of Capitals" skyscrapers in Moscow's business district, the al-Assad family is said to own about 20 apartments. Picture taken in 2021. Photo: Pavel Golovkin/AP/TT

Smoking and drinking

Also, the wife Asma al-Assad, who is said to be seriously ill with leukemia, and the couple's three children now live in Moscow. So does Bashar al-Assad's younger brother, Maher, who led the regime's feared elite forces and is said to have been responsible for an extensive state drug trade.

According to Die Zeit's sources, Maher lives in a Four Seasons hotel and spends his days getting drunk and smoking a hookah. In June, Qatar's Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported that he had been seen in a cafe in the Russian capital.

Both Bashar and Maher al-Assad are internationally wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges include the deadly attack on rebel-held Syrian Ghouta in 2013, in which UN investigators have determined that the regime used the nerve gas sarin.

FACTS

Ruled for over 50 years

Until December 2024, the Syrian state had been ruled with an iron fist by the al-Assad family since the 1970s.

Syria's political system was shaped by Hafiz al-Assad, president from 1970 to 2000. His son Bashar al-Assad inherited power after his father's death in 2000 and implemented some changes. But the basic system remained the same: with the president as both head of state, commander-in-chief and the highest executive power.

The uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime that started in connection with the Arab Spring of 2011 soon took the form of a civil war with the involvement of foreign powers, with around half a million people killed and a massive wave of refugees as a result.

Independent organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly reported on al-Assad's brutal rule and the state-run secret police that systematically tortured, imprisoned and killed opponents of the regime.

At the end of 2024, the Assad regime was overthrown in a lightning offensive led by the Islamist movement HTS. On December 8, HTS entered the capital Damascus and al-Assad fled to Russia.

Source: Landguiden/UI