Bloomberg: Russia pushed Bashar al-Assad to flee after confirming his defeat

Bloomberg quoted Russian officials today as saying that Moscow pushed the ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to flee Syria after it was certain of his defeat, and they stated that President Vladimir Putin demanded to know why Russian intelligence failed to predict that end before it was too late.

Three Russian officials close to the Kremlin, who declined to be named, said, according to Bloomberg, that Russia convinced Assad that he would quickly lose the battle against armed groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham towards the capital, Damascus, and offered him and his family safe passage if he left immediately.

The officials said two Russian intelligence agents organized the escape, flying Assad out of its air base in Syria. One said the plane’s transponder was turned off to avoid being tracked.

“President Vladimir Putin is demanding to know why the Russian intelligence service did not detect the growing threat to Assad’s rule until it was too late,” said a well-informed Russian official close to the Kremlin.

While Putin has yet to publicly talk about the collapse of the Assad regime, Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, a defense and security think tank, said: “It is quite logical for Russia to ask Assad to surrender because it wants to avoid a bloodbath in which he would meet the same fate as Gaddafi or Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.”

Bloomberg reported that Russian media is sending a message that Assad is responsible for his defeat, while Moscow has kept its word not to abandon him, and should now focus on preserving its strategic interests in Syria and the broader Middle East.

Russia initially bombed the rebels, trying to push them back and bolster Assad’s forces. But with the Syrian army offering little resistance when rebels captured the city of Hama within days of taking Aleppo, Russia concluded it could not protect the regime while the rebels advanced on the strategic city of Homs.

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow announced last Sunday that Assad had stepped down from his post and left his country, adding that Russia was in contact with "all Syrian opposition groups."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks on the Syrian crisis with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts in the Qatari capital, Doha, last Saturday.

Source: Bloomberg