(Reuters) – Russia transported Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted as Syria’s president in a lightning strike, safely to Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told NBC News in an interview published on Tuesday.
The Kremlin said on Monday that President Vladimir Putin had made a decision to grant asylum in Russia to Assad. His downfall is a major blow to Iran and Russia, which have intervened in Syria’s 13-year civil war to try to prop up his rule despite Western demands for his ouster.
“He was protected, and it shows that Russia does what is needed in an extraordinary situation,” Ryabkov told NBC, according to a statement on NBC’s website. He added that he would not elaborate “on what happened and how it was resolved.”
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Asked if Russia would hand over Assad to trial, Ryabkov said: “Russia is not a party to the convention that created the International Criminal Court.”
Moscow supported Syria from the early days of the Cold War, recognizing its independence in 1944 when Damascus sought to overthrow French rule. The West saw Syria as a Soviet satellite.
On Tuesday, Syria’s new president announced that he was taking over the presidency with the support of former rebels who ousted Assad.
Separately, Ryabkov said that Russia would be “ready to consider” another prisoner exchange, similar to the August exchange involving Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan.
The new agreement would be “a healthy step forward, especially at the beginning of the next administration,” Ryabkov told NBC, adding that he would not want to “remove anything.”
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Leslie Adler and Stephen Coates)