The Guardian: Escaped from Syria Assad lives on Rublevka and wants to become an eye doctor

The now ex-president of Syria Bashar Assad, who fled to Moscow, settled in Rublevka and decided to become an eye doctor, The Guardian newspaper reports, citing details from his life based on conversations with a family friend, sources in Russia and Syria.

According to the publication, having lost power, Assad has become uninteresting to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The ex-president of Syria leads a reclusive life in a mansion on Rublevka, where he can meet with former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, the article says. Assad's family planned to move to the UAE, but they allegedly did not want to "shelter" him there.

"The Assad family, which, even before losing power, transferred a significant part of its fortune to Russia, settled on Rublevka, furnishes the house with luxury items, buys clothes in elite stores. They did not find a place for themselves in Russian society — only Assad's daughter Zane graduated from MGIMO this summer, and at the graduation party, family members (though without Assad himself) were seen together for the only time in a year," The Guardian claims.

According to the publication, Assad is learning Russian and is engaged in an ophthalmology course. He previously studied to be an eye doctor in London.

"This is his passion, it is clear that he does not need money. Even before the start of the [civil] war in Syria, he was a practicing ophthalmologist in Damascus," a friend of the Assad family told the newspaper, suggesting that wealthy representatives of the Moscow elite could become his clients.

Assad is "not interesting" to either Putin or the Russian political elite, according to a source close to the Kremlin. According to him, Putin "does not tolerate leaders who lose power, and Assad is no longer considered an influential figure, or even an interesting guest who can be invited to dinner."