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Just a few weeks after a whirlwind rebel offensive seized control of his homeland last year, a Syrian expatriate in Moscow treated himself to a meal in the city’s tallest skyscraper.
With views from the 62nd floor, stylish hostesses and elaborate cocktails, the restaurant “Sixty” regularly welcomes members of Russia’s political elite and foreign celebrities.
So the Syrian diner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he had not been surprised when waiters asked him to refrain from taking photos.
But he was surprised to discover who one of the V.I.P.s dining in his midst was: his country’s ousted dictator, Bashar al-Assad.
For more than five decades, the Assad family name has been synonymous with brutal autocracy. Now, the Assads are fugitives living in Moscow.
Both the deposed president and his brother Maher, one of the regime’s most powerful military leaders, have betrayed little about how they spend their days in the country that propped them up when they were in power and took them in when they fell.
But from witnesses and family friends, and digital clues left on hard-to-track social media accounts, reporters for The New York Times have uncovered glimpses into a life of luxury and impunity.
Details of the Assad family’s lives emerged from a Times investigation into the whereabouts of 55 of the regime’s highest-ranking officials. The people who spoke to The Times — including family friends, relatives, and former officials — insisted on anonymity out of concern for their safety.
The Assads’ luxurious exile began from the first moments they fled to Moscow via private jets and car convoys, according to a relative, two family friends, and two ex-military officers from the Fourth Division, which Maher al-Assad led. All of them have spoken to, stayed with, or met members of the Assad family.
Under the close guard of Russian security services, they first stayed in opulent apartments run by the Four Seasons, which can cost up to $13,000 per week.
From there, the deposed president and his family moved to a two-story penthouse in Federation Tower, the same skyscraper where the restaurant Sixty is located. Later, Mr. al-Assad was moved to a villa in the secluded suburb of Rublyovka, west of Moscow, according to a former Syrian official in touch with the family, another acquaintance, and a regional diplomat told by Russian officials.
The enclave is popular with the Russian elite and boasts a “luxury village” shopping complex. The Russian security services continue to guard Mr. al-Assad and oversee his movements, the former officials and regional diplomat said, and have ordered the family not to make public statements.
In February, the Russian authorities moved quickly, three other former officials said, when Mr. al-Assad’s son Hafez, 24, wrote about the family’s escape on social media and shared a video of himself strolling through Moscow. He has not posted online since.
Two acquaintances said they had seen Maher al-Assad, a baseball cap low over his eyes, several times at a gleaming skyscraper in Moscow’s business district where they believed he was living. One family friend said he lived in the Capital Towers buildings in that district.
In June, he was seen in a video on social media at the trendy Myata Platinum hookah bar in Afimall, a nearby shopping and entertainment complex.
While in power, Maher and the forces he led were accused of shooting unarmed protesters, enforcing “surrender or starve” sieges and running a regional drug trafficking operation estimated to have made them billions of dollars.
Judging by the activities of the Assad daughters, the family has retained significant wealth.
In November, the ousted dictator invited friends and Russian officials to a villa in the suburbs for an opulent party celebrating his daughter Zein’s 22nd birthday, according to a relative, a former regime officer, and a family friend whose children or close friends attended the party.
Ms. al-Assad’s cousin and Maher’s daughter, Sham al-Assad, also appeared to celebrate her 22nd birthday with an extravaganza, held over two nights in mid-September at a gold-tiled French restaurant called Bagatelle in Dubai and then on a private yacht.
The social media accounts of both women are set to private, with user names that don’t obviously signal their identities. But The Times found and confirmed the authenticity of the accounts through tips from relatives and family friends, then examined images and videos from public-facing Instagram posts by their friends.
One post from Sham al-Assad’s birthday showed golden 22-shaped balloons surrounded by gifts in bags from luxury brands such as Hermès, Chanel, and Dior.
Another captured revelers at Bagatelle surrounded by champagne sparklers. There is a glimpse of Ms. al-Assad herself, shaking a bottle of Cristal in a cheering crowd. Another photo tags her cousin Zein’s Instagram, though she is not seen in the shot.
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Aaron Byrd
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