Overview

• Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, citing a private source, reported that Bashar al-Assad was released Monday from a hospital on the outskirts of Moscow.
• The source claimed he had been poisoned and said his condition was described as stable.
• The alleged plot was characterized as an effort to embarrass Russia by suggesting complicity in his possible death.
• Hospital access was tightly restricted, with only his brother Maher al-Assad permitted to visit under heavy security.
• Assad has lived in Russia since his ouster ten months ago under asylum reportedly granted by Vladimir Putin, while Syria’s new authorities have sought his extradition and Russia has refused.