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Conflict in Syria

Kremlin not obliged to officially report on Assad's asylum — spokesman

Dmitry Peskov said it was wrong to link the conditions of prisoners in Syria with the granting of asylum to the former president

MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Moscow is not obliged to officially announce the granting of asylum to former Syrian President Bashar Assad, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"No, absolutely not, we are not obliged to do this," the spokesman said when asked if there would be an official announcement from the Kremlin on granting asylum to Assad.

Peskov said it was wrong to link the conditions of prisoners in Syria with the granting of asylum to Assad. "Here it is hardly possible to draw such hasty conclusions of a general nature, here it is necessary to be guided by information about each individual case, so I do not consider such a question correct," the Kremlin spokesman said in response to the question whether the video footage of the conditions of detention of prisoners in Syria would force Moscow to reconsider the possibility of granting asylum to Assad.

Earlier, it became known that the armed opposition occupied the Syrian capital Damascus, and Assad resigned as president of Syria and fled the country, instructing for the peaceful transfer of power. A Kremlin source told TASS on Sunday that Assad and his family members arrived in Moscow, and Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds.

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Foreign policy Dmitry Peskov Syrian conflict

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