Where does Bashar Assad keep millions of his dollar and euro cash in Moscow?

The Central Bank of Syria sent several airplanes with millions of dollars in cash to Moscow in 2018-2019, when ousted President Bashar al-Assad was in power, The Financial Times said with reference to confidential documents.

There was a significant shortage of foreign currency in the republic at the time. A source familiar with the internal statistics of the Syrian Central Bank told the authoritative publication that Syria's domestic foreign currency reserves were "almost zero” at the time. Against this backdrop, the Assad government sent two tons of $100 and €500 bills — a total of $250 million — to Moscow.

21 airplanes were used to transport the money

On May 13, 2019, a plane carrying $10 million in $100 bills, formally sent by the Syrian Central Bank, landed at a Moscow airport. In February, the Syrian Central Bank also transferred about 20 million euros in 500-euro notes.

A total of 21 flights were made from March 2018 to September 2019. At the same time, according to records from 2012 to 2018, there were no such money transfers between the Syrian Central Bank and Russian banks. According to the British newspaper, the exported assets were then deposited in Russian banks. As the publication said, the Assad family secretly acquired assets in Russia, including luxury real estate in Moscow.

David Schenker, who served as US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, noted that the Syrian ruling circles wanted to relocate the money to a safe place to subsequently use it for their well-being. It is worthy of note that Syria was then extremely dependent on Russian military support.

The value of Bashar Assad's family could reach as much as $12 billion, The Wall Street Journal said. It will be problematic to find and freeze those assets. According to former American officials and lawyers, foreign assets were traced to the family of Assad's wife Asma Akhras, the mother of the former president Anisa Makhlouf, and the brother of Assad's father Hafez, Rifat.

Former White House employee Andrew Tabler told the publication that Assad always had a backup plan that would allow him to leave the country when needed. Therefore, the Assads were well-prepared for living in exile.

The Washington Post wrote that the ousted president of Syria was hiding his luxurious lifestyle for 25 years. Members of the Assad family would wear modest clothes and drive inexpensive cars. At the same time, videos showed local residents taking expensive items from the Syrian president's house, including Louis Vuitton bags and other luxury items by Dior, Hermes and Cartier.

The luxurious house of the former Syrian president was looted after terrorists seized power in Damascus. The footage posted online showed women, children and men inspecting the six-story house with a large garden of the former Syrian leader. Assad owned Ferrari, Audi, Mercedes, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and other luxury cars.

Grigory Karasin, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, believes that one should be cautious about the FT publication about airplanes with millions of dollars in cash.

"In my opinion, the fact that this was published in The Financial Times is a classic operation to drop a favourable version into media space in order to manipulate it, give appropriate assessments and appropriate interpretations. Everything else will follow. Let's see how true this information is and why it was released today,” the official said, lenta.ru news publication reports.

The senator suggested that the article in The Financial Times could be aimed directly against Assad and against Moscow.

Details

Bashar al-Assad (born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician and military officer who served as the 19th president of Syria from 2000 until his government was overthrown by Syrian rebels in 2024. As president, Assad was the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is the son of Hafez al-Assad, who was the president from 1971 until his death in 2000. In the 1980s, Assad became a doctor, and in the early 1990s he was training in London as an ophthalmologist. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel al-Assad died in a car accident, Assad was recalled to Syria to take over Bassel's role as heir apparent. Assad entered the military academy and took charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. On 17 July 2000, Assad became president, succeeding his father, who had died on 10 June 2000. A series of crackdowns in 2001–02 ended the Damascus Spring, a period marked by calls for transparency and democracy.