The Kremlin on Monday commented on reports in Turkish media, denying that Asma al-Assad, the wife of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had filed for divorce and left Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also denied Turkish media reports that Assad’s travel restrictions and his property assets had been frozen.
When asked whether this information was true, Peskov replied: “No, it does not correspond to reality.”
Turkish and Arab media reported on Sunday that Asma al-Assad had filed for divorce in Russia, where the Assad family was granted asylum this month after the opposition seized control of Damascus in a lightning advance.
Asma al-Assad’s name was associated with the reign of her husband, Bashar, who ruled Syria for 24 years, but her fate after she and her family fled Damascus has become the subject of many questions, especially after developments from Britain, on whose soil she spent half her life.
The forced exile represents the final blow to the reputation of Asma al-Assad, who was once seen as an asset to the Syrian regime after her marriage to Bashar al-Assad in 2000, who succeeded her father, Hafez al-Assad, as the country’s president.
In March 2012, Asma al-Assad’s assets were frozen as part of European sanctions that London maintained despite its exit from the European Union, justifying itself by claiming that she “benefits from the Syrian regime to which she is linked”.
In response to a question posed a few hours after the fall of Assad, in the House of Commons, the position of British Foreign Secretary David Lammy was categorical.
Lamy said: “In recent days I have seen reports that Asma al-Assad, who is a British citizen, is trying to come to our country. I confirm that she is subject to sanctions and is not welcome.
He added: “I will do my best to ensure that no member of this family is resident in the UK.”
Earlier, a senior Labour government official, Pat McFadden, said the authorities had “made no contact and received no request for Assad’s wife to come to the UK”.
Asma, who belongs to the Sunni sect while her husband is from the Alawite sect, embodied, at the beginning of her marriage to Assad, a symbol of modernity, leading to a radical change in the role of the Syrian First Lady, after Anisa, Bashar al-Assad’s mother, remained on the sidelines when her husband was president.
The couple had three children, two boys and a girl. Their eldest son recently graduated from Moscow University with a degree in mathematics.
Last May, the Syrian presidency announced that Asmaa al-Assad had leukemia after being treated for breast cancer between 2018 and 2019.
Her critics accuse her of illicit enrichment through the charity “Syrian Trust for Development” that she founded, and which received the majority of the funding received from abroad.
She and her husband controlled much of the Syrian economy using pseudonyms, according to the news website Syria Report.
In 2020, US sanctions were imposed on her, her parents and two brothers, and the then US Secretary of State considered her “one of the biggest beneficiaries of the war in Syria”.
