The decision to grant asylum in the Russian Federation to former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family could only be made by Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was reported to journalists by the Russian leader’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, without commenting on the fact of whether such asylum was actually granted, TASS reports.
“Of course, such decisions cannot be made without the head of state. This is his decision. But, in this case, I have nothing to tell you,” Peskov said.
At the same time, the Kremlin representative noted that there were no official statements on this matter, “yesterday [in the media] there was information from a source.” “And I have nothing to say on this topic now,” Peskov emphasized once again.
He answered the question about Assad’s whereabouts in the same way. As for the possibility of contacts between Putin and the former Syrian president, according to Peskov, “there is no such meeting in the president’s official schedule.”