From ophthalmologist to dictator and back again? Bashar al-Assad. (archive image)Image: keystone
A good year after his escape from Syria, Bashar al-Assad is learning Russian and brushing up on his medical knowledge. This raises speculation about his professional future.
December 16, 2025, 12:24 p.mDecember 16, 2025, 12:32 p.m
A year has passed since the overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Now a family friend told the British newspaper “The Guardian” about the exiles in Moscow: “They are a bit dazed. I think they’re still in shock. They first have to get used to life without being the first family.»
Assad had on December 8, 2024 Syria towards Russia leave. According to the Guardian, he is said to live in a guarded, posh district in the Moscow suburb of Rublyovka. Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014, is also said to live there. According to the report, Assad avoids publicity. And Kremlin chief Putin is reportedly avoiding the former Syrian dictator. «Putin has little patience for heads of state who lose powerand Assad is no longer seen as an influential figure or even an interesting dinner guest,” the Guardian quoted a Kremlin insider as saying.
“He’s brushing up on his knowledge of ophthalmology.”
Assad ruled Syria from 2000 to 2024. Most recently with increasingly brutal methods. His older brother Basil al-Assad was actually intended to succeed his father Hafiz al-Assad at the head of the state. But he died in a car accident in 1994. So Bashar al-Assad had to switch to politics.
Learning Russian and returning to ophthalmology… a report reveals details of Bashar al-Assad’s new life with his family in Moscow. pic.twitter.com/l7ySuzD5Yb
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) December 15, 2025
Actually he had in London Studied medicine and specialized in ophthalmology. In Moscow, Assad, now 60 years old, is supposed to brush up on his knowledge of medicine. A family acquaintance is quoted in the Guardian as saying: “He is learning Russian and brushing up on his knowledge of ophthalmology.” The assumption: Assad is targeting rich customers from the Russian upper class.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an independent body based in London, Assad and his family, including his three children, are under the protection of the Russian Secret Service (FSB). It is even said that Assad is under the “extraordinarily strict protection” of the FSB, which severely restricts his freedom of movement.
The family has only appeared publicly once – but without the former ruler. That was the end of June. At that time, daughter Zein al-Assad received her diploma from the famous Moscow Institute for International Relations. The Russian Foreign Minister had previously attended the elite university Sergey Lavrovoligarch Alexander Lebedev and Azerbaijan’s ruler Ilham Aliyev graduated, as did the later EU commissioners Maroš Šefčovič and Štefan Füle.