Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani met earlier today with some members of the Syrian community in Moscow. The day before, he held friendly talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Conspicuously absent from either meeting, from SANA’s report and all coverage of the visit are Moscow’s best-known Syrian residents: Bashar al-Assad and his family.

Assad, who fled Syria on December 8, 2024, after revolutionaries finally, triumphantly ended half a century of dictatorship, is reportedly living in discreet luxury somewhere in or near the Russian capital. His name, however, is nowhere to be found in media coverage as officials of the interim government exchange smiles and platitudes with Assad's co-sponsors who helped him bomb half their country into rubble and labelled them and all dissidents as terrorists. You’d think he never existed.

The rest of the Moscow visit plays out like absurdist theatre: diplomats posing for photos with the same Russian officials who just months ago were defending the legitimacy of the genocidal regime these visitors overthrew. It’s like firefighters sitting down with the arsonist’s sponsors — while the arsonist himself lounges in a penthouse nearby, unmentioned by anyone in the room.

Russia, lest we forget, wasn’t a bystander in Syria’s destruction. It was a co-author and patron. For years, Putin and Lavrov insisted there was no Syria without Assad. All opposition was “terrorism.” Lavrov even went so far as to declare “We will not allow the Sunnis to rule Syria.”—straightforwardly asserting that the Sunni Muslim majority must be denied democratic rule or any power in their own nation.

Now, the very revolutionaries Russia once labelled terrorists are being welcomed in the Kremlin, where they are expected to politely ignore the war crimes Moscow helped commit as if these were some minor faux pas, while the elephant in the room sips espresso in one of the family’s Moscow penthouses, bought with stolen Syrian money, as Asma browses Prada, Gucci, and Armani on Tverskaya Street.

More of the billions stolen by the Assads are likely invested in Moscow real estate, possibly not far from where the current diplomatic ‘reconciliation’ is unfolding. Yet there’s been no mention of stolen assets in press coverage, no discussion of justice, no calls for accountability. Just polite silence and ‘bilateral cooperation.’

Pragmatism is, of course, necessary. Syria’s interim government must engage internationally. But there’s a fine line between diplomatic discretion and historical erasure. Pretending Assad is a ghost instead of a fugitive war criminal risks legitimizing both him and the powers that propped him up.

This meeting also comes just four days after a phone call between Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, in which the Kremlin claimed Putin “emphasised the importance of supporting the unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic.” From a man who helped fragment Syria and flatten its cities, that’s rich.

Even richer: the suggestion that either Putin or Netanyahu, two genocidal hawks posing unconvincingly as doves, give a damn about ‘internal political stability’ or the legitimate rights of Syria’s ethnic and religious communities. Given that Russia bombed Syria’s hospitals and Israel continues to occupy the Golan Heights while launching regular cross-border strikes on Syrian civilians and seizing Syrian resources —sometimes under the pretext of ‘protecting Druze’—the idea that either state seeks ‘stability’ or human rights for Syrians of any sect is, at best, grotesquely absurd.

For Putin’s team, hosting the Syrian delegation is simply another opportunity to launder Russia’s reputation through photo ops and diplomatic theatre, while sweeping Assad under the gilded carpet. Rebranding war crimes as “stabilisation.” Pretending that years of mass murder were a mere blip, a minor temporary misunderstanding.

The interim government is surely aware that Russia isn’t offering support—it’s hedging its bets. Moscow will work with whoever it can manipulate. Today’s olive branch may yet become tomorrow’s garotte.

And as for Assad, he may not have been invited to the meeting — but his malign presence was certainly in the room, draped in silence, surrounded by the countless ghosts of his victims still awaiting justice.

By Ruth Riegler
Radio Free Syria

Photo: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, left, attend a joint news conference following their meeting in Moscow, Russia, July 31, 2025. Via AP