Exiled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is said to spend his days playing video games and honing his ophthalmology skills at his luxury Moscow apartment and country villa after Vladimir Putin granted him asylum.
The ousted ruler, nicknamed “The Butcher” for killing his people, has found a new life in the palatial 1,000ft tower after fleeing Syria when he was ousted in December, bringing an end to 24 years of brutal dictatorship.
The 60-year-old is believed to live in three apartments in a luxury high-rise building with a mall in the basement in the Moscow City district, a glittering business hub in the heart of the Russian capital.
The penthouse of the skyscraper is lavishly decorated – cream-colored wardrobes with gold trim, crystal chandeliers and wide sofas reminiscent of Middle Eastern palaces.
The luxury complex, where his family owns around 20 apartments worth more than £30 million across three floors, is attached to a shopping centre, which he occasionally visits.
The brutal dictator fled to Russia after a lightning attack led by the Islamist militant group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in December, ending a 13-year civil war as well as six decades of authoritarian rule by the Assad family.
Since then he has resumed his activity He is training as an ophthalmologist to treat the elite in Moscow, the city he now calls home after his isolation, a source close to the family has claimed.
A family friend told The Guardian: “He is studying Russian and reviewing ophthalmology again.
Bashar al-Assad (pictured) was known as the “butcher” of his nation for the brutality of his treatment of his people
Al-Assad now lives with his British wife, Asma Al-Assad, who suffers from cancer, his two sons, Hafez and Karim, 24 and 21 years old, and his 22-year-old daughter, Zain.
Exiled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reportedly spends his days playing video games in his luxury apartment in Moscow
“It’s his passion, and he obviously doesn’t need the money. Even before the war in Syria started, he was regularly practicing ophthalmology in Damascus.
He trained in ophthalmology in London in the early 1990s, but was called back to his home country after the unexpected death of his brother in a car accident in 1994.
Soon after, he entered the military academy and assumed the position of heir apparent to the regime.
He now spends most of his time playing video games online, although he is allowed to move freely around Moscow and his country villa outside the Russian capital.
He was provided with bodyguards from a private security company paid by the Russian government.
The friend said he now lives a “very quiet life”, adding: “He has very little, if any, contact with the outside world.” He is only in contact with two people who were in his palace, such as Mansour Azzam [former Syrian minister of presidency affairs] And Yasser Ibrahim [Assad’s top economic crony].’
Part of this comes from Putin’s apparent dismissal of Assad after the fall of the regime in Syria.
A source close to the Kremlin told the newspaper: “Putin has little patience for leaders who lose their grip on power, and he no longer views Assad as an influential figure or even an interesting guest who can be invited to dinner.”
Pictures of Assad wearing a Speedo sparked ridicule on social media after the fall of his regime
One photo found after the fall of the regime shows Assad wearing nothing but white pants and a jacket, clearly standing in front of the camera
A photo believed to show Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wearing only a swimsuit, taken by rebels after seizing his palace in Aleppo.
Photos of apartments in the complex show luxurious fixtures and upscale furnishings, in addition to panoramic views of Moscow (an illustration shows an apartment in the building)
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Al-Assad now lives with his British wife, Asma Al-Assad, who suffers from cancer, his two sons, Hafez and Karim, 24 and 21 years old, and his 22-year-old daughter, Zain.
Asma, who was born in London and married into the brutal authoritarian dynasty in 2000, is described as being in a “serious” condition with leukaemia.
She was accustomed to a life of luxury, with reports that she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on home furnishings and clothing during her husband’s reign of terror.
Their opulent Moscow pad offers similar opulence, with a 20-metre-tall lobby flooded with light and decorated with modern art. There are sofas, partitions and a welcome drink for visitors.
They have a huge hot bath in front of a 13-foot window in a 990-foot skyscraper with one of the best views in Moscow.
The bathroom is made entirely of Carrara marble.
“On Victory Day on May 9, you can watch the fireworks from the bathtub with a glass of champagne,” said Natasha, who sells penthouse apartments in the same tower in the Moscow City District. the time.
The Assads are in a good place and enjoying the money they stole. The German newspaper reported, citing Syrian sources, that the Syrian people do not mean anything to him.
Assad’s younger brother Maher is said to be staying at the Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow and spending his time drinking and smoking shisha.
Details of the luxurious life the family lived in Moscow emerged when Putin’s regime was forced to deny poisoning Assad in an assassination attempt.
One of the photos shows him wearing a khaki hunter’s uniform with a gun and a fur accessory, standing next to his friends who are also wearing the uniform.
These photos appear to show the 59-year-old as a young man in his 80s and 90s
The fall of the Assad regime in Syria was widely considered to be a major embarrassment to Putin, to whom he offered asylum.
A general view shows hundreds of people gathered in Orontes Square during celebrations marking one year since the liberation of the city, in Hama, Syria, December 5, 2025.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that the former tyrant of Damascus “has no problems living in our capital”.
Rumors spread of food poisoning that led to Assad being hospitalized in late September.
But Lavrov said the following month: “There have been no cases of poisoning, and if such rumors arise, I leave them on the conscience of those who spread them.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, citing a “private source,” claimed that Assad was taken to a hospital on the outskirts of Moscow.
The source claimed that Assad was “poisoned,” and that the motive behind the assassination was to “embarrass the Russian government and accuse it of complicity” in his killing.
The report said that Assad’s condition was “stable” after he was admitted to the hospital.
Lavrov also sought to justify Putin’s saving Assad from the revolution sweeping Syria and giving him a safe haven.
Bashar al-Assad is here for humanitarian reasons. “He and his family were facing physical devastation,” he said.
‘We all remember fate [Libyan leader] Muammar Gaddafi, which pleased Hillary Clinton, who watched his physical destruction live on television and applauded.
He added: “For purely humanitarian reasons, we granted asylum to Bashar al-Assad and his family.” He has no problems living in our capital.
His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 which was treated until the cancer reverted to leukemia in 2024.
She was already in Moscow receiving treatment when her husband’s regime was overthrown.
Their son, Hafez, 23, who studied in Moscow, narrated the family’s escape from Damascus after Putin’s army withdrew them before the revolution swept them.
He admitted that the fall of the regime was a shock.
“There was absolutely no plan — not even a backup — to leave Damascus, let alone Syria,” he admitted in a now-deleted video.
A Syrian rebel fires a weapon into the air to celebrate the rebel takeover of Damascus, in Homs, Syria, early December 8, 2024.
Smoke rises after Syrian rebels take control of Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024
“After consulting with Moscow, the base leadership informed us that our transfer to Russia had been requested.
“After some time, we boarded a Russian military plane bound for Moscow, where we landed that same night.”
Al-Assad remains a wanted man by the new Syrian government, which has issued an arrest warrant on charges of premeditated murder, torture, and incitement to civil war.
The memo gave an accurate description of him as being 1.89 meters tall, with an oval face, a prominent forehead, and a long nose. Eye colour: blue. Hair colour: brown.