In Moscow, a new life of secluded irrelevance awaits Assad

He was whisked away without a last message to his people, the aircraft's transponder deliberately switched off to avoid detection as it departed from an airbase in Syria.

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The operation was carried out with such secrecy that even the dictator's brother reportedly was not informed.

A decade earlier, it was Russian military power that saved Bashar alAssad's rule by intervening on his side during what appeared to be a losing civil war he violently attempted to suppress. Now, as rebel troops closed in on Damascus, Moscow provided Assad with a personal escape route.

According to Bloomberg, Assad required some persuading from Russia to leave the country, with Russian intelligence agents orchestrating his escape.

Assad's travel options were always going to be limited. As a pariah on the global stage, his two major allies, Russia and Iran, were the obvious places for refuge. By choosing Moscow, observers suggest, Assad opted for a familiar place that aligned with his lavish habits, while also selecting a refuge with relative geopolitical stability.

"Bashar and his family are avowedly secular, even though they identify with the Alawite sect, so Russia always had more appeal than Iran in that sense," said David Lesch, a Syria expert at Trinity University in Texas who has met Assad on multiple occasions.