Exiled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is said to spend his days playing video games and brushing up on his ophthalmology skills in his luxury Moscow flat and country villa after being granted asylum by Vladimir Putin.
The deposed ruler, branded the ‘Butcher’ for killing his own people, has found a new life in a plush 1000ft tower after fleeing Syria when he was toppled 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 with a mall downstairs in the Moscow City district, a glittering business centre in the heart of the Russian capital.
The skyscraper penthouse is ‘lavishly decorated — cream-coloured wardrobes with gold trim, crystal chandeliers, and wide sofas reminiscent of Middle Eastern palaces’.
The ostentatious complex, where his family owns around 20 apartments worth more than £30million across three floors, is attached to a shopping mall, which he sometimes visit.
The brutal dictator fled to Russia after a lightning offensive led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in December brought to an end a 13-year civil war and six decades of the Assad family’s autocratic rule.
Since then, he has resumed his training as an eye doctor to treat the elite of Moscow, the city he now calls home following his deposal, a source close to the family has claimed.
A friend of his family told the Guardian: ‘He’s studying Russian and brushing up on his ophthalmology again.
Bashar Al-Assad (pictured) was known as the ‘Butcher’ of his nation for the brutality of his treatment of his people
Assad now lives with his cancer-stricken British wife Asma Al-Assad, sons Hafez and Karim, aged 24 and 21, and 22-year-old daughter Zein
Exiled Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad reportedly spends his days playing video games in his luxury Moscow flat
‘It’s a passion of his, he obviously doesn’t need the money. Even before the war in Syria began, he used to regularly practice his ophthalmology in Damascus’.
He trained in ophthalmology in London in the early 1990s, but was recalled back to his home nation following the unexpected death of his brother in a car crash in 1994.
Shortly after, he entered military academy and took over as the heir apparent to the regime.
Now he spends much of his fays playing online video games, despite being freely allowed to move around Moscow and his country villa outside of the Russian capital.
He has been provided with bodyguards from a private security firm 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’s only in touch with a couple of people who were in his palace, like Mansour Azzam [former Syrian minister of presidency affairs] and Yassar Ibrahim [Assad’s top economic crony].’
Part of this comes from Putin’s apparent dismissal of al-Assad following 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 Assad is no longer seen as a figure of influence or even an interesting guest to invite to dinner’.
Images of Assad wearing speedos has generated ridicule on social media following the fall of his regime
One picture found following the regime’s fall shows Assad in nothing but white pants and a vest, clearly posing for the camera
A picture believed to be showing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wearing only speedos is taken by Rebels following the capture of his palace in Aleppo
Pictures of apartments in the complex show luxury fittings and high-end furnishings, as well as panoramic views of Moscow (illustrative picture shows an apartment in the building)
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Assad now lives with his cancer-stricken British wife Asma Al-Assad, sons Hafez and Karim, aged 24 and 21, and 22-year-old daughter Zein.
Asma, who was born in London and married into the brutal autocratic dynasty in 2000, is described as being in a ‘serious’ condition from her leukaemia.
She has become accustomed to a life of luxury, with reports that she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on home furnishings and clothes during her husband’s reign of terror.
Their plush Moscow pad provides similar opulence, with a 20 metre high lobby flooded with light and decorated with modern art. There are sofas, partitions, and a welcome drink for visitors.
They have a huge heated bath in front of a 13ft window in a 990ft skyscraper which enjoys one of the finest 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,’ Natasha, who sells penthouses in the same tower in the Moscow City district, told De Zeit.
The Assads ‘are in a good place and are enjoying the money they stole. The Syrian people mean nothing to them,’ the German newspaper, citing Syrian sources, reported.
Assad’s younger brother Maher reportedly stays at the Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow and spends his time drinking and smoking hookah.
Revelations of the family’s luxury life in Moscow emerged as the Putin regime was forced to deny that Assad had been poisoned in an assassination attempt.
One image shows him in a khaki hunter costume with a gun and fur accessory, standing alongside friends who are also in costume
These photos appear to show the 59-year-old as a young man in the 80s and 90s
The fall of the Assad regime in Syria was widely seen as being a major embarrassment for Putin, who offered him refuge
A general view shows hundreds of people gathered in Al-Assi Square during celebrations marking one year since the city’s liberation, in Hama, Syria, December 5 2025
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that the former Damascus despot ‘has no problems living in our capital’.
Rumours of a food poisoning which led to Assad being hospitalised spread in late September.
But Lavrov said the following month: ‘There have been no poisonings, and if such rumours appear, I leave them on the conscience of those who spread them.’
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed citing a ‘private source’ that Assad had been hospitalised on the outskirts of Moscow.
The source claimed that Assad ‘had been poisoned’ and that the motive behind the assassination operation was ‘to embarrass the Russian government and accuse it of being complicit’ in his death.
The report said Assad’s condition was ‘stable’ after hospitalisation.
Lavrov also sought to justify Putin rescuing Assad from the revolution engulfing Syria and giving him a safe haven.
‘Bashar Assad is here for humanitarian reasons. He and his family were facing physical destruction,’ he said.
‘We all remember the fate of [Libyan leader] Muammar Gaddafi, which so delighted Hillary Clinton, who watched his physical destruction live on television and applauded.
‘And we, for purely humanitarian reasons, have granted asylum to Bashar Assad and his family. He has no problems living in our capital.
His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 which was considered cured until the cancer returned as leukaemia in 2024.
She was already in Moscow undergoing treatment when her husband’s regime was toppled.
Their son Hafez, 23, who studied in Moscow, has told of the family’s escape from Damascus after Putin’s military pulled them just before they were engulfed by the revolution.
He admitted the downfall of the regime had come as a shock.
‘There was never a plan – not even a backup – to leave Damascus, let alone Syria,’ he admitted in a video, now deleted.
A Syrian rebel fires a weapon into the air to celebrate the rebel takeover of Damascus, in Homs, Syria, early 08 December 2024
Smoke rises after Syrian rebels took over Damascus, Syria, December 8 2024
‘After consulting with Moscow, base command informed us that our transfer to Russia had been requested.
‘Some time later, we boarded a Russian military plane bound for Moscow, where we landed that same night.’
Assad remains a wanted man by the new government in Syria, which issued an arrest warrant on charges of premeditated murder, torture, and incitement to civil war.
The warrant issued a precise description of him as ‘1.89 metres tall, oval face, prominent forehead, long nose. Eye color: Blue. Hair color: Brown.’
