Bashar al-Assad is reportedly spending his exile playing video games. His hobby of choice sets up an unexpected contrast with his earlier public comments on gaming.
Assad, who succeeded his father as President of Syria in 2000, was ousted in December 2024 after a rebel offensive seized Damascus. Before his fall, he had survived more than a decade of war with backing from Iran and Russia. He faces widely documented accusations of state torture, mass deaths in detention, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, among other war crimes. Regional dynamics remain unsettled under the post-Assad order, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, with recent reports pointing to renewed political issues and sectarian tensions, as well as cautious diplomatic resets with neighbors.
Assad’s Moscow Exile Routine Reportedly Includes Hours of Online Gaming
As the rebel troops entered Damascus in December 2024, Assad fled to Moscow, where he was granted political asylum—which Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved, according to prior statements from Kremlin officials. Now, a new report by German outlet Die Zeit states that the ousted politician is spending his days playing online video games in a luxury high-rise in the Russian capital. In addition to his gaming sessions, which are said to run for hours each day, he sometimes visits a shopping mall located below his apartment, as per the same source.
Assad Once Claimed He Doesn’t Play Online Games
Beyond stating that he plays online games, the report does not go into any further details on Assad’s gaming habits. However, the mere implied existence of such habits already stands in stark contrast to what Assad said nearly two decades ago, when he rejected the notion of being a gamer during a February 2007 interview with Good Morning America’s Diane Sawyer. Asked whether he plays anything online, he responded by saying he uses the internet “for information, not for video games,” according to an Engadget transcript of the exchange.
The now-60-year-old Assad had plenty of time to reconsider his stance on gaming in the 18 years that followed. His political asylum in Russia was given on “humanitarian” grounds, Russian news agencies reported in 2024. According to an April 2025 statement by Russian Ambassador to Iraq Elbrus Kutrashev, Assad’s was conditioned on him agreeing to completely withdraw from political activities and media appearances. Given how he has been out of the public eye since fleeing Damascus, he is seemingly complying with those conditions, which also secured asylum for his immediate family.
In spring 2025, Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa said he demanded Assad’s extradition from the Russian government. The request, presented as a condition for allowing Moscow’s military presence in Syria, was refused.
Sources: FT, JPost, Engadget, BBC
