Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the fate of the Syrian authorities’ new request for the extradition of former President Bashar al-Assad to Damascus.
On Wednesday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that Syrian President Ahmad al-Shar’a, during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, requested the handover of his predecessor, who fled to Russia after being ousted in December of last year.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Peskov refused to say whether the two presidents had discussed the issue of Assad’s extradition during their talks.
He stressed: “There is nothing to say in this regard,” according to the Russian newspaper Gazeta.
Peskov clarified that Putin and al-Shar’a had discussed the status of Russia’s military bases in Hmeimim and Tartus, but declined to provide further details.
On Wednesday, Dmitry Novikov, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, described the request to hand over Assad as “strange,” suggesting that “revenge against him” could be possible if Moscow were to comply.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Moscow had provided refuge to Assad and his family for “purely humanitarian reasons.”
Lavrov told reporters last week: “Bashar al-Assad is with us for humanitarian reasons. There were threats to his life and his family, and for humanitarian reasons alone we offered them protection.”
He also denied rumors that Assad had been poisoned in Moscow, saying: “Assad faces no problems during his stay in our capital. He was not poisoned, and if such rumors appear, I leave them to the conscience of those spreading them.”
Earlier this month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Assad had survived an attempted poisoning in Moscow.
German media outlets had also previously published reports describing aspects of Assad’s life in exile with his family in the Russian capital, under tight Kremlin protection.
According to those reports, Assad’s lifestyle is marked by “a mix of extreme luxury and complete isolation,” as he “resides in lavish apartments overlooking skyscrapers but has been stripped of any role or influence in Syria’s future.”
