Nearly a year after fleeing a coup that ended his decades-long rule in Syria, former President Bashar Assad is reportedly living in quiet exile in Moscow, according to an investigation published by the German newspaper Die Zeit.
The report said Assad, 59, and his family have settled into a luxury skyscraper in the Russian capital, where they own about 20 apartments across three floors. He is described as moving freely around the city, occasionally visiting a nearby shopping mall, while remaining under the protection and control of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Entirely dependent on the Kremlin, Assad has taken what one source described as a “vow of silence.” Die Zeit reported that Putin maintains a “monopoly on information,” exercising full control over how Assad’s rule and Russia’s involvement in Syria are portrayed.
An Arab journalist interviewed by Die Zeit said the former Syrian ruler keeps a low profile. But a former member of Assad’s inner circle, identified only as “K.” and now living in Europe, provided new details about his life in Moscow.
K., who said he was born into an influential Syrian family and rose through the ranks of the Syrian military, told the paper that Assad tried to assassinate him in 2012 through airstrikes that killed several of his bodyguards. Despite having left Syria years ago, he said the country’s new government still regards him as part of the “old elite.”
“He and his family can move freely around Moscow,” K. said. “They employ private bodyguards paid for by the Russian government. Bashar lives in three apartments within a tower that has a mall underneath, and he sometimes visits the stores there.” K. added that Assad spends long hours playing online video games.
The former insider also told Die Zeit that Assad’s wife, Asma, is in critical condition. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 and recovered, but the disease returned in the spring of 2024. Assad’s younger brother, Maher, is reportedly staying at the Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow, “spending his time drinking and smoking hookah.”
Civilians and rebels enter Bashar al-Assad’s presidential palace and loot the furniture in December 2024
Despite the secrecy surrounding Assad’s whereabouts, Die Zeit journalists said they managed to enter the building where he is believed to be living. They described it as a gleaming, high-security skyscraper filled with foreign residents and politicians.
A local real estate agent, identified under the alias Natasha, showed the reporters apartments similar in design to those owned by the Assad family. The lobby, she said, features a 20-meter-high ceiling, modern art, and private reception areas.
The apartments, Die Zeit wrote, are lavishly decorated — cream-colored wardrobes with gold trim, crystal chandeliers, and wide sofas reminiscent of Middle Eastern palaces. Kitchens feature German-made appliances, and the rooms have large televisions and floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic views of Moscow’s skyline and the Moscow River.
“The highlight,” the report said, “is the bathroom — entirely clad in Carrara marble, with a massive heated bathtub facing a four-meter-high window. An airplane passes by at eye level.”
Assad’s son speaks out from Moscow
In February, Assad’s son, Hafez, posted a video from Moscow that quickly spread on social media — his first public appearance since the family’s escape.
“There was no plan, not even a backup plan, to leave Damascus, let alone Syria,” Hafez said in the video, filmed in one of Moscow’s upscale neighborhoods. He described how the family’s departure unfolded in December 2024, as opposition forces captured Damascus and other major Syrian cities.
Hafez Assad in Moscow
Hafez said he had been in Moscow working on his doctoral studies when the unrest began, while his mother remained there for medical treatment. As fighting intensified, he returned briefly to Damascus to be with his father and brother Karim.
He said a Russian official later instructed the family to move to the coastal city of Latakia, home to a major Russian military base. “We went to Damascus International Airport around three in the morning,” Hafez said. “The airport was empty, even the control tower. Then we boarded a Russian military plane to Latakia and landed at Hmeimim Airbase before dawn.”
The Assad family’s fate has remained unclear since the fall of the regime last year. If the Die Zeit report is accurate, it suggests that Moscow — Assad’s closest ally during Syria’s civil war — has now become his gilded refuge.