Russian officials have been forced to issue a statement after reports emerged suggesting the wife of ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was seeking a divorce.

In Syria, after 13 years of civil war, armed rebels took the capital Damascus, in a lightning advance, prompting President Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia on 8. Much of the country is now run by rebels led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group,

Russia has evacuated some staff from its diplomatic missions in Damascus, as well as personnel from the embassies of Belarus, North Korea, and Abkhazia, according to the Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Management Center.

Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack.

The rapid downfall of Syrian leader Bashar Assad has touched off a new round of delicate geopolitical maneuvering between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

With Syrian opposition forces advancing rapidly toward the capital, Damascus, President Bashar al-Assad’s fate lay in Russia’s hands as his army melted away.

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Russia has evacuated at least 400 soldiers from the Damascus region in recent days in co-ordination with ...

Losing Syrian military bases would hurt the Kremlin’s attempts to project power in the Middle East and Africa.

After the fall of the Assad regime, Russian cargo planes flew equipment from Syria to bases Moscow controls in eastern Libya, according to U.S. and Libyan officials.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday it was up to Syrians to determine their own future and called for an "inclusive" government taking account of the country's diverse ethnic and religious interests.

Russia, a longstanding ally of Assad, granted the ousted Syrian leader asylum last weekend after helping him to flee his country as the rebels approached Damascus. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has ...

Russia would like, if it can ... who had been imprisoned while Bashar al-Assad was in power and found outside Damascus earlier this week, was handed over to U.S. forces by Syrian opposition ...