Bashar al-Assad’s Lavish Life: From Palaces to Exile in Moscow | Vantage with Palki Sharma

me Syria as a nation has been through a lot 13 years of Civil War half a million people dead there's more Rubble than buildings there the economy is in a shambles yet Bashar al-assad L LED quite a luxurious life look at his presidential Palace in Damascus as you can see it's a sprawling luxurious compound three six-story buildings surrounded by manicured Gardens the Interiors are even more opulent the doors are bulletproof inside the floors are lined with the finest marble there are plush red carpets the Furnishing is high-end like chandeliers made of crystal there's expensive furniture

countless boxes of jewelry bank records for millions of dollars antique Goods racks of designer clothes and refrigerators full of meat his garage was full of luxury cars worth millions of dollars including a rare Ferrari F50 it has an eye watering price tag of $5.5 million Assad fled the country last week ordinary serans have since raided his Palace some have left with Goods including designer bags and Furniture others just wanted to see how the family lived after he became arrogant and tyrannical dominating the land for 133 years from 2011 to 2024 causing hunger killings torture and

the displacement of Syrian children today we were finally able to enter Bashar al-asad's Palace his Palace has now become a place for the Syrian people I came to see what we were forbidden from seeing because we were not supposed to witness these things we had to remain in the reality we lived in poverty deprivation and hardship I came to what he owns which we do not have for years Syria's first lady Asma alassad insisted that they LED an ordinary life that there were no trappings of luxury yet these pictures tell a different story and speaking

of pictures the palace was full of them family holiday photos pictures of parties there were signs of a normal life too homework done by the children birthday letters even a Mother's Day card all found scattered across the floor so how did Assad fund this luxurious lifestyle of course he had the backing of Russia and Iran but he needed something more another robust source of income and that came in the form of a drug captagon it's a stimulant drug originally developed in the 1960s it was legal for a while by 1990 exports of this drug were

limited and in 2009 countries stopped manufacturing it all together and that's when Syria took over the they started producing this drug illegally it took a few cents to produce a captagon pill it was then sent across the border to Jordan and finally to Saudi Arabia that's where the drug was sold for nearly $25 captagon is mostly found in West Asia especially in the Gulf States you see alcohol is illegal there so they use captagon for recreational purposes the drug made it to conflict zones as well Hamas Fighters are said to be using it or were

said to be using it so large parts of West Asia was hooked onto this drug and Syria was the drug dealer the trade was run primarily by Mahir Al Assad the brother of Bashar al-assad by some estimates the business was worth $10 billion which is funny because Syria's GDP is less than $9 billion so captagon kept Assad afloat and since taking over the rebels have targeted it dismantling his large network of drug trade after we entered and did a weep we found that this is a factory for mahare al-assad and his partner Amir Ki they

work in captagon and drugs and we found a large number of devices that were stuffed with packages of captagon pills meant to be smuggled out of the country so what happens to the assads now they lost their source of income they lost their country what will they do now we know that Bashar Assad fled to Moscow his wife and children were already there sources suggest that he had two choices Russia or Iran but in the end he chose Moscow his son studies in the city also his wife would get better Medical Care there she was

diagnosed with cancer in May this year and that made Russia the top choice of course the assads will lead a comfortable life there but it won't be the same it will neither be luxurious nor extravagant they may stay below the radar that doesn't mean though that they are strapped for money the family's net worth is around 2 billion dollars hidden in offshore tax Havens shell companies and real estate holdings they also own 20 apartments in Moscow valued at over $30 million so the assads of course won't be struggling for years they ruled Syria with an

iron fist the family lived in opulence as the people continue to suffer in Moscow they will live as Shadows of their former selves haunted by the legacy of Destruction that they've left behind for