The Kremlin says claims the wife of deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad is filing for divorce so she can move to London does not “correspond with reality”, amid claims the couple are under effective house arrest in Moscow after fleeing Syria.
Spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov told journalists claims aired that Asma al-Assad, the British-born wife of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was filing for divorce just days after escaping to Russia from his crumbling regime. The Jerusalem Post said the claims originated in “Turkish and Arab media” over the weekend and alleged Asma was seeking a divorce, and that she wanted to move to London.
It was further claimed the pair’s movements were tightly controlled by the Russian government including a ban on leaving Moscow, and that their assets had been frozen.
Peskov is stated to have rejected the claims out of hand, stating: “No, they do not correspond to reality”. The truth of the matter is presently hard to ascertain, neither Bashar al-Assad nor his wife have been seen in public since their ouster and the claims and counter-claims are presented without evidence by both sides.
49-year-old Asma was born in London in 1975 to Syrian parents and was raised in the United Kingdom, including studies at an exclusive private school. She met her future husband Bashar when he was in London to study medicine and the pair married in 2000, months after Bashar became the President of Syria. She left her job as an investment banker in the City of London to move to Syria.
Asma has been accused of using her British upbringing and glamorous appearance to sanitise the Assad regime, and to some extent this appears to have worked. Even on the very cusp of the Arab Spring, Vogue magazine published a glamorous and now-infamous profile of the Syrian first lady entitled A Rose in the Desert.
Despite having being the first lady of Syria for over 20 years, and having been under a sanctions regime by the British government for over a decade, Asma is believed to have retained her British citizenship and passport. The Guardian notes Foreign Minister David Lammy said earlier this month she would be stopped at the border if she tried to return to London, passport or not.
He said: “I’ve seen mentioned in the last few days, Asma Assad [is] potentially someone with UK citizenship that might attempt to come into our country, and I want it confirmed that she’s a sanctioned individual and is not welcome here in the UK”.
Asma al-Assad is reported to presently have cancer. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 and was photographed wearing a head scarf as she underwent chemotherapy, before being declared cancer-free the following year. She was diagnosed again earlier this year, being said to have acute myeloid leukemia in May, a cancer of the bone and blood.
