In his first comments on Assad’s downfall, Putin said that he hadn’t yet met the former Syrian ruler, whom he has given asylum in Moscow, but plans to.

HMEIMIM AIRBASE, SYRIA — The Sukhoi fighter aircraft punched through the clouds, its growl echoing over Russia’s Hmeimim Airbase on Syria’s coast. Abu Zaid, a bearded militant with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, cocked his ear toward the roar.

Syria's former President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday, and a deal has been done to ensure the safety of Russian military bases.

During Vladimir Putin’s year-end press conference on Thursday, NBC journalist Keir Simmons asked him about Russia’s role in Syria. Putin dismissed any suggestion of Russian failure, asserting that Moscow had achieved its objectives there and that the groups opposing Bashar al-Assad’s regime had “undergone internal changes.

The sudden collapse of the long-established Assad family dictatorship in Syria changes the balance and constellation of competing forces in the Middle East. For many years, the Syrian government has been a client of Russia, and before that the Soviet Union. Turkey has also intervened, mainly in pursuit of the Kurd minority regarded as dangerous.

Rebel forces in Syria captured the capital Damascus and toppled the regime ... Bashar al-Assad and his family are now in Moscow, Russian state-owned news agency TASS is reporting, citing a source in the Kremlin. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attends ...

Bashar al-Assad’s central bank airlifted around $250mn in cash to Moscow in a two-year period when the then-Syrian dictator was indebted to the Kremlin for military support and his relatives were secretly buying assets in Russia.

The United Nations intends to offer all kinds of help to the Syrian people, UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen told Syrian rebel leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and caretaker prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir during a meeting in Damascus, according to a statement released by the UN envoy's office on Monday.

Vladimir Putin has been conspicuously silent about Syria since the end of Bashir Assad's rule. Analysts say it points to weakness and a need for a win.

Syria's former President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday, and a deal has been done to ensure the safety of Russian military bases.