Russian President Vladimir Putin hugs former President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, in 2017.
A week after leaving the country, there is no news about the dictator’s health or his family: the Kremlin remains silent. Meanwhile, Israel continues to bomb dozens of targets in Syrian territory.
A week ago, the deposed president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, found refuge in Russia, but since then, there has been no news about his health or that of his family.
Moscow maintained the same secrecy in relation to other leaders to whom it granted asylum. Although it was the Kremlin that confirmed al-Assad’s presence on Russian territory last Sunday, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, dodged to address the issue throughout the week at press conferences.
One more word could jeopardize the future of its military bases in the Arab country. Therefore, senior Russian officials also refrained from openly criticizing the biggest beneficiaries of the regime’s fall: Türkiye, Israel and the USA.
Hope for Putin
Syrian and Iranian diplomats have confirmed that the deposed dictator’s family is in Russia, so there is no doubt as to his whereabouts. However, they did not provide any further details.
The Assads’ eldest son, Hafez, completed his doctorate at a university in the Russian capital, where the family reportedly purchased several luxury apartments in the so-called “Moscow City”which is home to some of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe, according to the local press.
It seems that everyone is waiting for a statement from Russian President Vladimir Putin on the matter, especially since he was the one who bet on maintaining the Syrian regime, sending troops to the Arab country in 2015.
Putin participated in several official events this week, but did not allude to the issuewhich shows that the geopolitical setback for the Kremlin has been significant.
Gone are the days of re-enacting victory in Syria, with a historic concert held in May 2016 in the ruins of Palmyra, including a speech by the Kremlin leader via videoconference.
However, the wait shouldn’t be long. Putin is expected to address the issue at his annual press conference, scheduled for December 19th.
In the most recent case of the Ukrainian Viktor Yanukovychrescued by Moscow in February 2014, the Kremlin held him directly responsible for his fate, for not having listened to advice to harshly repress opposition protests.
“It’s Assad’s fault”
Russian propaganda made clear the change in tone towards Assad. Within a few days, the media stopped labeling the rebels of the Levant Liberation Organization (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, HTS) as “terrorists”, and started calling them simply the “armed opposition”, with whom Moscow has already established contacts, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry made on Thursday.
All this to avoid embarrassing the Russian Army, unable to fight on two fronts at the same time and bogged down in the current offensive in Donbass.
Assad has become the elephant in the Kremlin room: it is a uncomfortable figure for Russiasince, like the deposed leaders of Iraq, Libya and Ukraine, the Kremlin does not want the impression to spread that its authoritarian regime may also fall.
If there were any doubts, Deputy Head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev dispelled them after a trip to China.
“The internal situation depended on Assad’s administration and government. Unfortunately, the Syrian Army has shown itself to be incapable ofwhich probably confirms the miscalculations made during the state administration”, declared the former Russian president.
Medvedev also expressed serious doubts that future authorities will be able to guarantee coexistence between the country’s different ethnic groups.
“In the old model applied by the Assads, father and son, (consensus) was reached for some time. I will not comment now at what cost and with what consequences,” he said, according to the Tass news agency.
More than 60 Israeli bombings in 5 hours
Nonetheless, more than 60 Israeli bombings reached military installations in less than five hours throughout Syria, according to information released this Saturday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO based in the United Kingdom.
A week after Assad’s fall, Israel continues to intensify its air strikes in the country, especially against mountain tunnels that contain ballistic missile depots, the NGO added.
The Observatory, which has a vast network of field sources, recorded 446 Israeli bombings since the fall of Assad last Sunday.
The NGO reported other Israeli bombings a few hours earlier, which destroyed “a scientific institute” and “other military positions in Barzeh, in the extreme northeast of Damascus”.
In turn, the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Army to “prepare to remain” throughout the winter in the buffer zone between Israel and Syriaon the Golan Heights plateau, largely annexed by Israel.
Israeli troops entered the buffer zone shortly after Assad’s fall. The UN denounced this incursion as a “violation” of the 1974 withdrawal agreement between Syria and Israel.
