MOSCOW, August 27. /TASS/. The decision to grant former Syrian President Bashar Assad refuge in Russia was not politically motivated and was based solely on humanitarian considerations, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.

"There were and are no political grounds behind his stay in our country. The decision was made solely on humanitarian grounds: the dramatic circumstances of the change of power in Syria meant that he and his family faced death," she said, responding to a question about whether Moscow could "extradite" Assad to Syria’s new authorities after a Syrian court sentenced him to death in absentia.

On August 11, Syria’s SANA news agency reported that a criminal court in Damascus had sentenced Assad, his cousin Atef Najib and seven other wanted suspects to death.

A TASS source reported earlier that Assad and his family were in Moscow and had been granted asylum in Russia. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later said that Assad and his family were in Russia solely for humanitarian reasons, as the former president faced physical reprisals in his homeland following the change of power in late 2024.