Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was allegedly hospitalized after being poisoned in a suspected assassination attempt in Moscow. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claimed an informant advised them the former tyrant "had been poisoned," alleging that the murder plot was made "to embarrass the Russian government and accuse it of being complicit" in his death. The ex-dictator's condition is now said to be stable. His brother, Maher Assad was reportedly the only person allowed to visit him in hospital for security reasons. Al-Assad was reportedly released from the hospital following the alleged attack and the Kremlin has yet to comment on the report. The ousted dictator was granted political asylum in Russia, his former backers, where he fled to after being toppled ten months ago. Al-Assad has not been seen in public since, although he did post some messages on social media.
The new Syrian regime has called for Bashar al-Assad's extradition, which the Kremlin has refused. The former tyrant is believed to have a frozen account with HSBC Bank in London with a balance of more than $51.5 million. Bashar al-Assad airlifted around $250 million in cash to Moscow. The transactions were carried out in a two-year period, 2018 and 2019, and included nearly two tons of $100 bills and currency notes of 500 Euros. These bank notes were flown to Moscow's Vnukovo airport and deposited in sanctioned Russian banks. Assad's relatives were secretly buying assets in Russia during the same period. (The Financial Times, 15 Dec 2024). With Bashar al-Assad's usefulness gone to Vladimir Putin and his ill-gotten pelf safely in the hands of Russian banks, this assassination attempt allegation sounds plausible. Bashar al-Assad might have been safer fleeing to Iran, but it was the Russian military that secured and flew him to Moscow when rebels began closing in on him in Damascus.
