[Jimbuna]

The humiliated Assads' new life in Russia with their $2bn fortune

President Assad, his British wife and their three adult children have left behind their Syrian palaces and will begin a new life in Russia after being granted asylum by Vladimir Putin. Asma Al-Assad, a London-born doctor's daughter who married into the brutal autocratic dynasty, 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.

The US state department estimates that the family are worth $2billion, with their wealth concealed in numerous accounts, shell companies, offshore tax havens and real estate portfolios. Now they are likely to draw on their family connections and extensive assets in Moscow in the hope of keeping up their comfortable lifestyle in exile. The Syrian dictator's extended family bought up at least 20 Moscow apartments worth more than £30 million in recent years, illustrating Russia's status as a safe haven for the clan.

The Kremlin today confirmed that the family was given asylum on the direct orders of Putin. Moscow disclosed no further details, with presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov telling reporters today: 'We have nothing to say about Assad's whereabouts.' Mrs Assad, who has been battling an aggressive form of leukaemia, is widely believed to have arrived in Moscow with her daughter and two sons days before her husband finally fled Syria. Secret tunnels beneath an Assad family mansion were reportedly uncovered after rebels seized the capital Damascus on Sunday, with the network serving as a possible escape route for the dictator and his allies.
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