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| - Fact Check: First photo of ousted Bashar al-Assad taking refuge in Moscow? Nope, this is from 2023
India Today Fact Check found that the viral photo is from February 2023 when Assad and his wife visited a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, to meet earthquake victims.
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India Today Fact Check
The photo is from February 2023 when Assad and his wife visited a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, to meet earthquake victims.
A lightning offensive by Syrian rebels overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime, reportedly forcing him to flee the country. As per reports, Assad and his family have been granted asylum in Russia’s capital, Moscow. Kremlin sources reportedly told Russian news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti that Assad and his family were granted asylum on humanitarian grounds.
Now, a photo allegedly showing Assad after landing in Moscow is going viral. The photo was widely shared on Facebook and X. Its archive can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the viral photo is from February 2023 when Assad and his wife visited a hospital in Aleppo to meet earthquake victims.
Our Probe
With the help of keywords, we found a video on the YouTube channel of the Syrian radio station Sham FM TV, uploaded on February 10, 2023. The video report detailed Bashar al-Assad's visit to Aleppo University Hospital to meet earthquake victims. The beginning of the video shows the same visuals as seen in the viral photo.
Syria Stream, a digital news platform, also uploaded a video on YouTube regarding Assad’s hospital visit on February 10, 2023. This video also shows the same visuals of Assad with his wife and others after nine seconds.
Pictures of Assad’s visit were also shared by the X account of the Syrian President at that time. The images show Assad and his wife in the same attire as seen in the viral photo.
The Turkey-Syria earthquake of February 2023 killed more than fifty thousand people, of which over seven thousand died in Syria.
At the time of publishing this on December 9, there were no publicly available photos of the deposed Bashar al-Assad from Moscow.
Thus, it’s clear the viral photo has nothing to do with Assad fleeing to Moscow.
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