Al-Sharaa’s Rendezvous With Putin in Moscow

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Ahmad al-Sharaa met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on October 15. This was his first visit to Russia, and among other matters, he asked Putin to extradite the arch-criminal Bashar Assad back to Syria. This matters very much to the Syrians, who want the source of so much misery and murder to be brought to trial in Damascus, where his crimes will be laid out in detail, and the lanky ophthalmologist will without a doubt be sentenced to death. More on this visit can be found here: “Syria’s Al-Sharaa seeks extradition of Kremlin ally al-Assad in first Moscow trip,” by Aleksandar Brezar, EuroNews, October 15, 2025:

The interim president of Syria arrived on an unprecedented visit to the Russian capital on Wednesday, where he is expected to demand that the Kremlin extradites toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad — who received asylum in Russia following his ouster — to face trial back in his country.

Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived on an unprecedented official visit to Moscow on Wednesday, less than a year after he led a swift rebel offensive that ousted one of Russia’s top foreign allies, the dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Assad was an ally of Russia, and Moscow’s scorched-earth intervention in support of him a decade ago turned the tide of Syria’s civil war, keeping al-Assad in his seat until his swift removal in December.

Now, al-Sharaa, who was greeted at the Kremlin with full honours, is expected to demand al-Assad’s extradition so he can face a trial back home.

Al-Sharaa, who has also courted the US and the West since he came to power in December 2024, has taken a pragmatic approach with Moscow, allowing Russia to retain control over its air and naval bases on the Syrian coast despite being on opposite ends of the 13-year war.

In the run-up to the meeting, the Kremlin said that the future of the bases was on Moscow’s agenda.

Al-Sharaa did not mention the Russian military facilities in his brief televised remarks at the start of the meeting. Instead he chose to talk about the “historic ties” between the countries and noted the importance of developing them.

In turn, he was hailed by Russian President Vladimir Putin for organising Syria’s parliamentary elections, which Putin said were a “big success”.

Al-Assad uneasy subject for Moscow

Despite not explicitly mentioning the elephant in the room, it is widely expected that al-Sharaa will broach the subject of al-Assad’s future in Russia.

Moscow, which has focused on its all-out war in Ukraine and kept only a small military contingent in Syria, did not try to jump to al-Assad’s help and assist in repelling the rebel offensive. However, Russia did give asylum to al-Assad after he fled the country.

In a recent interview with the CBS News show 60 Minutes, al-Sharaa said the Syrian authorities “will use all available legal means” to demand the trial of al-Assad.

The Kremlin has largely avoided the subject so far….

The Russians are determined to hold onto their two bases in Syria — the naval base at Tartous and the airbase at Hmeimim. These are the only bases Russia has abroad, and they are indispensable if Russia is to be able to project military power in the Mediterranean and the wider Middle East. Twice before, in April and again in September, al-Sharaa asked Russia to extradite Assad, and twice he was turned down. At this point, feeling more sure of himself, with American sanctions lifted, and Arab oil states expressing support, al-Sharaa may in a face-to-face meeting with Putin again ask for Assad’s extradition, and make clear that Russia’s continued use of its bases in Syria are conditional on Putin finally agreeing to extradite Assad.

There is one more thing the cash-strapped Syrian leader wants though it has not been mentioned in any of the communiques coming out of the al-Sharaa-Putin meeting. He wants returned to his country the fabulous sums that Assad stole while he ruled Syria. In 2023, British intelligence — MI6 — estimated that Assad had 200 tons of gold, 16 billion dollars, and 5 billion euros. Ahmad al-Sharaa wants to claw back as much of that wealth as he can.

Perhaps some of that gold and that cash is now in possession of the Russian government, the price exacted by Moscow to provide Assad with refuge. Or Russia may know where much, or all, of that wealth has been hidden. Would Russia turn over any of those stolen Syrian riches to al-Sharaa in lieu of handing over Assad himself? Or would Putin hand over Assad to al-Sharaa, knowing that once in Syrian custody, Assad will be subject to Syrian interrogators just as effective as those of the KGB who operate out of the blood-drenched basement in Lubyanka, and they will be able to exact the information about those hidden assets? It’s also conceivable that in return for those tons of gold and that cash, Assad himself will be sentenced to life imprisonment rather than be executed, or if that is not possible, then possibly his wife, who is being treated for leukemia in a Moscow hospital, and his children (one of whom just received his doctorate from Moscow University, with a thesis on number theory), will not only be allowed to remain in Russia, but be given enough — $20 million? $40 million? — to tide them over for the rest of their lives. And the bases at Tartous and Hmeimim will remain in Russian hands for a long time to come.