Putin has offered political asylum to Assad, the Kremlin confirms

The Kremlin announced on Monday that Russia has granted political asylum to its longtime Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally made the decision to offer asylum to Assad.

Immediately after Syrian rebels entered the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Sunday, Syrian President Assad left the country on a plane.

At first, his whereabouts were unknown, but later it became known that he was in Russia.