Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad arrives in Moscow after fleeing Damascus, Russian state media reports.
The RIA Novosti news agency reports that the Kremlin is in contact with the leaders of the armed Syrian opposition, “who have guaranteed security to the Russian military bases and diplomatic establishments in Syria.”
The agency quotes an unnamed source in the Kremlin as saying Russia has “always called for a search for a political solution in the Syrian crisis.”
“We hope the Syrian dialogue will continue in the interests of the Syrian people and the development of bilateral relations between Russia and Syria,” the source adds.
Earlier, Russian media agencies said that Assad and his family have been granted political asylum in Moscow.
It was Russian firepower that had helped keep Bashar al-Assad in power for the last nine years.
But, in a matter of days, the Kremlin’s Syria project has unravelled, with Moscow, apparently, powerless to do anything about it.
The fall of the Assad regime is a blow to Russia’s prestige.
By sending thousands of troops to shore up President Assad in 2015, one of Russia’s key objectives had been to assert itself as a global power.
It was Vladimir Putin’s first major challenge to the power and dominance of the West, away from the former Soviet space. And a successful one, too, so it seemed.
In return for military assistance, the Syrian authorities awarded Russia 49-year leases on the air base in Hmeimim and its naval base in Tartus. Russia had secured an important foothold in the Eastern Mediterranean. The bases became hubs for transferring military contractors in and out of Africa.