The decision to grant asylum in Russia to Bashar Assad and his family was made by President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, TASS reports.
"Such decisions certainly cannot be made without the head of state. It was his decision," Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesman noted, however, that no official statements had been made on the matter. "A source provided the information [to the media] yesterday," he said, noting that he had nothing to add.
On November 27, Syria’s armed opposition units launched a large-scale offensive on the positions of government forces in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. By the evening of December 7, President Bashar Assad’s opponents had seized several large cities, including Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, and Homs. On December 8, they entered the Syrian capital, Damascus, while the army withdrew from the city. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement, Syrian President Bashar Assad stepped down and left the country, handing down instructions to ensure a peaceful transition of power. A Kremlin source said later that Assad and his family members had arrived in Moscow as Russia had provided them with asylum based on humanitarian grounds.
