NYT: Assad may join deposed leaders in Russia

NEW YORK If Russia grants asylum to Syria's Bashar al-Assad, he may settle in the town of Barvikha – the same town that is now a home to Slobodan Milosevic’s family. Former Yugoslav president's widow Mira Markovic and son Marko live in separate villas in Barvikha, the New York Times writes. NYT: Assad may join deposed leaders in Russia Slobodan Milosevic’s brother Borislav Milosevic said that family members who had settled in Barvikha had been getting on swimmingly since the Yugoslav conflicts faded from the news, NYT has reported. Speaking about Markovic’s nine years in exile, Borislav Milosevic said that she had a wholly “ordinary” life and that she has friends over all the time. She lives a respectable, normal life.” The New York Times writes that Markovic has been compiling a book of her husband’s interviews and that her son is married to a Russian woman, with whom he has a daughter. Diplomats in Russia, Assad’s most important ally, have denied they are considering granting him safe haven as a step toward resolution of the conflict. “They could be trying to signal to Assad there is an offer, but the window of opportunity is not going to remain open for a long time,” said Mark N. Katz, a professor of government and politics at George Mason University in Virginia. In Barvikha, home mostly to Russian nouveaux riches, every house hides behind a gigantic wall, and the lenses of closed-circuit television cameras stare blankly at passers-by, NYT points out. According to the paper, “this improbable small town of villas and luxury boutiques, built around the sanitarium is home to half a dozen or so deposed leaders and members of their families”. Kyrgyzstan’s toppled President Askar Akayev came to Barvikha after street protests known as the Tulip Revolution in 2005. Moscow’s reputation as a welcoming city for deposed autocrats was reinforced in 2004, when the mayor at the time, Yuri M. Luzhkov, provided his private jet to Aslan Abashidze, the separatist leader of the Ajaria region of Georgia, in a timely gesture. Abashidze reportedly lives in Barvikha. In 1998, the leader of the once Communist-leaning Kurdistan Workers Party, Abdullah Ocalan, fled from Syria to Moscow. But the Russians would not take him. He was put on a flight to Africa, where he was caught, writes NYT. nytimes.com, Radio 021

NYT: Assad may join deposed leaders in Russia

Slobodan Milošević’s brother Borislav Milošević said that family members who had settled in Barvikha had been getting on swimmingly since the Yugoslav conflicts faded from the news, NYT has reported.

Speaking about Marković’s nine years in exile, Borislav Milošević said that she had a wholly “ordinary” life and that she has friends over all the time. She lives a respectable, normal life.”

The New York Times writes that Marković has been compiling a book of her husband’s interviews and that her son is married to a Russian woman, with whom he has a daughter.

Diplomats in Russia, Assad’s most important ally, have denied they are considering granting him safe haven as a step toward resolution of the conflict.

“They could be trying to signal to Assad there is an offer, but the window of opportunity is not going to remain open for a long time,” said Mark N. Katz, a professor of government and politics at George Mason University in Virginia.

In Barvikha, home mostly to Russian nouveaux riches, every house hides behind a gigantic wall, and the lenses of closed-circuit television cameras stare blankly at passers-by, NYT points out.

According to the paper, “this improbable small town of villas and luxury boutiques, built around the sanitarium is home to half a dozen or so deposed leaders and members of their families”.

Kyrgyzstan’s toppled President Askar Akayev came to Barvikha after street protests known as the Tulip Revolution in 2005.

Moscow’s reputation as a welcoming city for deposed autocrats was reinforced in 2004, when the mayor at the time, Yuri M. Luzhkov, provided his private jet to Aslan Abashidze, the separatist leader of the Ajaria region of Georgia, in a timely gesture. Abashidze reportedly lives in Barvikha.

In 1998, the leader of the once Communist-leaning Kurdistan Workers Party, Abdullah Ocalan, fled from Syria to Moscow. But the Russians would not take him. He was put on a flight to Africa, where he was caught, writes NYT.