ASSAD BECOMES NEIGHBOR TO SLOBODAN MILOŠEVIĆ’S FAMILY: Russians set him up in a luxury complex, but it comes at a price! (PHOTO)

When news broke that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had fled to Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remarked: “Brave Assad has fled to Putin. But where will Putin flee?”

As Mark Galeotti writes in his article for The Spectator, Assad and his family were granted asylum in Russia “on humanitarian grounds” — the same asylum he denied his own citizens for years. But what kind of life has Putin offered him?

“It appears to be a luxurious life,” says Galeotti. However, in practice, this means the Assads will become yet another exhibit in the world’s strangest zoo: Putin’s collection of former leaders. Just west of Moscow lies the small village of Barvikha. At first glance, driving through the main road, the place doesn’t seem much different from other Russian villages. However, turning onto side streets and looking beyond the tall metal fences lining the road reveals lavish dachas that are more akin to mansions and castles than ordinary cottages.

During the Soviet era, homes in this village were assigned to high-ranking political officials and other loyal and deserving Russians. Now, it is home to obscenely wealthy tycoons and deposed rulers and their families.

Among the residents are the family of former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević and at least three others: Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan (ousted during the 2005 “Tulip Revolution”), Aslan Abashidze from Georgia’s Autonomous Republic of Adjara (convicted in absentia of terrorism and murder in his home country), and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (who fled after the 2014 “Revolution of Dignity”). Bashar and Asma al-Assad are believed to be the latest additions to this collection.

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A Gilded Cage

While life in Barvikha is lavish to the point of tastelessness, it is, in reality, a gilded cage. The estates are enormous. Yanukovych, for instance, owns a $52 million mansion in Barvikha, as well as another house in Russia’s Rostov region.

The village also boasts a luxury shopping center called the “House of Dreams,” with stores such as Dior and Gucci and even a Ferrari dealership where residents can pick up their new toys.

However, living in Barvikha isn’t free, and the Assads will have to pay for life within this golden circle. The U.S. State Department has estimated Assad’s private wealth at up to $2 billion, hidden worldwide in offshore accounts and shell corporations.

To maintain their extravagant lifestyle in exile, the Assads will need to spend heavily on private security and discreet servants — many of whom are likely agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). For those short on cash, another way to pay for asylum is to become protégés and pawns of the Kremlin.

Bashar al-Assad has faced criticism on Russian social media, accused of causing his regime’s collapse by failing to capitalize on the opportunity provided by Russia’s 2015 intervention to negotiate with rebels and rebuild his army. Moreover, both Moscow and Tehran have reportedly grown frustrated with his complacency.

Still, if Assad wants to retain any degree of freedom, he must quietly endure all criticisms with a smile. Although it is unlikely that he — or his 23-year-old son Hafez, groomed to inherit the throne — will ever return to Syria, Assad remains a potential bargaining chip in negotiations. Putin is unlikely to hand him over to the Syrians or a war crimes tribunal. Providing asylum has always been a last-resort measure in Moscow’s social contract with its clients: if all else fails, you can settle here.

“But now the Assads must do whatever the Kremlin demands. For now, their job is simply to remain silent and avoid reminding the world that Moscow backed a leader who became both a dictator and a failure. And now, as the horrors of Syria’s Sednaya prison come to light, along with images of Assad’s luxury garage filled with extravagant cars while ordinary Syrians lived in unimaginable poverty, few are likely to feel sympathy for him,” Galeotti writes.