“Putin Orders Investigation Into Intelligence Failures as Assad Resigns and Seeks Asylum in Russia”
Bloomberg quoted the Kremlin as saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin had called for an investigation into the failure of his intelligence services to detect the threat that led to the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Kremlin revealed that Russian intelligence agents orchestrated Assad’s departure from Damascus, adding that the intelligence services facilitated his evacuation from Syria on a plane departing from a Russian military base.
The Kremlin also disclosed that Russia had disabled radar systems over Syria to prevent the detection of the plane carrying Assad.
On November 27, armed opposition groups in Syria launched a large-scale offensive against Syrian army positions in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. By December 8, they had entered the capital, Damascus. At the time, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Jalali expressed his readiness to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power in the country.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Bashar al-Assad had resigned as Syria’s president and left the country, instructing a peaceful transition of power. The ministry clarified that Russia had not participated in the negotiations. A Kremlin source told TASS on December 8 that Assad and his family had arrived in Moscow, where they were granted asylum for humanitarian reasons.
