Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia with his family after a rebel coalition entered Damascus and overthrew his government, but there is no evidence that circulating on social media showing him and his wife arriving in Moscow on December 8. In fact, the film was taken when the couple went to the Asian Games in eastern China in 2023.
“On the evening of December 8, Moscow local time, former Syrian President Bashar and his wife have arrived safely at the Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow, Russia, to start their new life,” read simplified Chinese. Weibo post on December 9, 2024.
The eight-second clip shows Assad's wife, Asma al-Assad, putting a pin on his collar and the couple drinking tea at a wooden table.
Screenshot of the fake Weibo post, captured on December 19, 2024
The video appeared shortly after Assad fled to Moscow on December 8 after a shocking rebel advance that ended fifty years of rule by his family, marked by repression and accusations of human rights abuses and civil war (archive link).
It came out more than 13 years after a crackdown on democracy protests started a civil war.
Russia was Assad's main supporter and helped him in 2015, turning the tide of the conflict.
Screenshots of the clips have been shared hundreds of times along with similar claims on Weibo here, here and herein addition to X here.
But the videos are old and were filmed in China in 2023.
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A background image search on Google and subsequent keyword searches on X found that the same video was uploaded on September 23, 2023 by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on its Spanish channel (archive link).
The legend said the video shows Assad and his wife Asma before an official lunch hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip in the fake posts (left) and the footage posted by SANA (right):
A screenshot comparison of the clip in the fake posts (left) and the footage posted by SANA (right)
A Chinese journalist affiliated with the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, Shen Shiwei, also posted the same video on it X in September 2023 and said the couple attended a welcome banquet for the Asian Games in Hangzhou hosted by Xi (archive link).
Search keywords in AFP archives September 23, 2023 picture of the Assads at the Asian Games which showed Asma wearing the same dress as the one seen in the second clip circulating in the fake posts (archive link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip in the fake posts (left) and the AFP photo (right):
A screenshot comparison of the clip in the fake posts (left) and the AFP photo (right)
Subsequent keyword searches on Google found a photo published by the linked state Zhejiang daily in an article about the tea served at the guest lounge at the Asian Games, which contained the same tea items and wooden table seen in the image of Assad and his wife drinking tea (archive link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image showing the Assads tasting tea (left) and the image published by Chinese media (right), with the corresponding elements identified by AFP:
A screenshot comparison of the image showing the Assads tasting tea (left) and the image published by Chinese media (right)
AFP has debunked yet another fake post claiming to share “first images” of Assad in Moscow here.
