Syria's former President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday, and a deal has been done to ensure the safety of Russian military bases.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said earlier that Assad had left Syria and given orders for a peaceful transfer of power, after rebel fighters raced into Damascus unopposed on Sunday, ending nearly six decades of his family's iron-fisted rule.
"Syrian President Assad of Syria and members of his family have arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds," the privately-owned Interfax news agency and state media quoted the unnamed Kremlin source as saying.
Interfax cited the same Kremlin source as saying Russia favoured a political solution to the crisis in Syria, where Moscow supported Assad during the long civil war.
The source said negotiations should be resumed under the auspices of the United Nations.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's ambassador to international organisations in Vienna, said on his Telegram messaging channel: "Breaking news! Bashar al-Assad and his family in Moscow. Russia does not betray friends in difficult situations."
Syrian opposition leaders had agreed to guarantee the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria, the source told news agencies. But some Russian war bloggers said the situation around the bases was extremely tense and the source did not say how long the security guarantee lasted.
Moscow, a staunch backer of Assad whom it intervened to help in 2015 in its biggest Middle East foray since the Soviet collapse, is scrambling to salvage its position. Its geopolitical clout in the wider region and two strategically-important military bases in Syria are on the line.
A deal to secure Russia's Hmeimim air base in Syria's Latakia province and its naval facility at Tartous on the coast would come as a relief to Moscow.
The Tartous facility is Russia's only Mediterranean repair and replenishment hub, and Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.
Losing Tartous would be a serious blow to Russia's ability to project power in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa, say Western military analysts.
