Russia breaks silence to defend Putin’s pal Assad amid swirling divorce rumours | World | News
Russia has been forced to issue a humiliating denial of rumours that the wife of the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad wants a divorce.
Rebel forces stormed to victory this month, taking the Syrian capital, Damascus, and forcing President al-Assad to flee to Russia, where he has been personally given sanctuary by his long-time ally, President Vladimir Putin.
But after losing his country, rumours ran amok that Assad could also be losing his wife Asma al-Assad, with Turkish and Arabic media reporting the British-born former first lady wanted to come to the UK.
Now, in an angry rebuttal from Moscow, Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Kremlin, said stories saying Asma wished to divorce her husband “do not correspond to reality”.
The Assad private residences were sacked by rebel forces during a successful rebellion earlier this month. Bizarre and personal photos of the ousted Syrian President were found in some of his abandoned residences, sparking ridicule among Syrians who only until recently were persecuted for criticising his leadership.
Some images showed Bashar Assad in swimming trunks flexing his biceps, while in another he appeared astride a yellow motorcycle in his briefs. In one picture, he was staring blankly in a kitchen, wearing only white underwear and a sleeveless undershirt.
After the so-called Arab Spring series of revolutions across the Middle East from 2010 to 2012, a brutal civil war broke out in Syria, and Assad relied heavily on Russian military support to cling to power, as well as backing from Hezbollah and Iran.
But with the ongoing war in Ukraine taking up resources from Moscow, and the virtual destruction by Israel of Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces in neighbouring Lebanon, Assad had run out of support.
He married his wife, who is a dual Syrian-British national, in 2000, but the UK foreign secretary has said previously she would not be allowed to return to Britain, despite the couple once meeting former Prime Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street.
Speaking in parliament earlier this month, David Lammy said: “I want it confirmed that she’s a sanctioned individual and is not welcome here in the UK.”
He added he would do “everything I can in my power” to ensure no member of the Assad family “finds a place in the UK”.
In a statement attributed to Bashar al-Assad last week, the former leader of the Middle Eastern country said he had never intended to flee Syria, but he was airlifted from a Russian military base at Moscow’s request.
