Russia scrambled to shoot down claims that exiled dictator Bashar al-Assad’s London-born wife Asma filed for divorce and wants to leave with her children to the UK.
Turkish media dropped a bombshell report on Saturday that Asma al-Assad, 49, was fed up with her asylum in Russia and wanted to build a new life in London. The report claimed she filed for divorce just two weeks after her family fled Syria ahead of a rebel advance into Damascus.
The report suggested Asma was fed up with Russian restrictions that confine her and her three children to the city of Moscow, and that she wanted access to top-quality treatment as she fights leukemia.
The Kremlin was quick to deny the claim.
“Rumors of the divorce do not correspond to reality,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the BBC.
Peskov also denied claims that the family was confined to Moscow and that their assets had been frozen.
Asma al-Assad was raised in the UK and moved to Syria at 25. She married Bashar al-Assad shortly after he assumed the presidency.
