Russia has successfully moved former Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to its soil after he was ousted from power, according to an interview with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, which aired on NBC News on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Kremlin revealed that President Vladimir Putin had granted Assad asylum in Russia after rebels seized control of the Syrian capital, Damascus, early on Sunday morning.
“He is secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation,” Ryabkov said in the interview, according to the transcript published on NBC’s website.
He chose not to provide additional details, stating, “I would not elaborate on what happened and how it was resolved.”
When asked about the possibility of Russia handing Assad over for trial, Ryabkov responded, “Russia is not a party to the convention that established the International Criminal Court.”
Ukrainian intelligence sources have claimed that Assad’s escape from Syria to Russia was carefully orchestrated, involving a deception tactic that caused the Syrian President’s plane to vanish from radar, leading to rumors that it had crashed.
Russia has long had close relations with Syria, dating back to the early Cold War period, and has been conducting air strikes in Syria since September 2015 to support Assad in his battle against the rebels.
While Russia maintained that it was only targeting Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist positions, Western officials accused Moscow of also targeting “moderate” rebel groups that were fighting against ISIS.
{Matzav.com}
Russia Securely Transported Assad To Its Territory together with his $135 Billion.