Ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack. The comments are the first by al-Assad since he was overthrown by insurgent groups earlier this month.

Bashar al-Assad’s central bank airlifted around $250mn in cash to Moscow in a two-year period when the then-Syrian dictator was indebted to the Kremlin for military support and his relatives were secretly buying assets in Russia.