Khamenei’s Moscow Escape Plan Would, If Followed, Put Him in Company With Array of Despots

If Iran’s widely despised supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, flees into exile in Moscow in the face of a collapsing Iranian regime as has been suggested, he will join a small circle of toppled despots living in comfort in the Russian capital. That prospect gained traction this week following a report in the Times of London which, quoting intelligence sources, said the Iranian leader has prepared a backup plan to flee to Russia with about 20 family members and close associates if his regime continues to crumble.The most recent dictator to seek a home by the Moskva River to avoid death or imprisonment at the hands of his own people was Bashar al-Assad, the former Syrian dictator whose regime is blamed for the deaths of more than 200,000 civilians during a 14-year civil war.Mr. Assad, driven from power in November 2024, is currently living in luxury in Moscow and refreshing his training from earlier life as an eye doctor, according to a December 19 report in the Guardian, which cited persons close to his family as sources.“He is studying Russian and brushing up on his ophthalmology again. It’s a passion of his; he obviously doesn’t need the money,” a family friend is quoted as saying.Among his fellow exiles in the Russian capital is Viktor Yanukovych, a former president of Ukraine. Driven from power in a 2014 uprising known as the Maidan Revolution, in which more than 80 protesters were killed by government snipers, Mr. Yanukovich fled to escape charges of mass murder in his homeland.Current Ukrainian authorities say he is living in a $50 million mansion in a village near the capital not far from President Vladimir Putin’s official residence.Yet another of Moscow’s notorious expats is Askar Akayev, Kyrgyzstan’s first post-Soviet president who was overthrown in the so-called “Tulip Revolution” in 2005, sparked by widespread corruption and nepotism.He is reported to be working as a professor and senior researcher at Moscow State University and was honored by Mr. Putin last year with the title of “Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation.”The colorful group of exiles might well have been joined by the ousted president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, had President Trump been a little slower to send Delta Force troops to capture him and whisk him to America for trial.As little as a week before Mr. Maduro’s arrest, according to documents made available to the Washington Post, Vatican officials were telling the American administration that Russia was ready to grant asylum to Mr. Maduro if he would be allowed to exit gracefully.The Times of London report says Ayatollah Khamenei has chosen Russia for his home in exile, should that prove necessary, because he “admires Putin, while the Iranian culture is more similar to the Russian culture.”The newspaper quotes an intelligence official saying, “The ‘plan B’ is for Khamenei and his very close circle of associates and family, including his son and nominated heir apparent, Mojtaba,” to travel to Moscow.“They have plotted an exit route out of Tehran should they feel the need to escape,” which includes “gathering assets, properties abroad and cash to facilitate their safe passage,” the source was quoted as saying.Along with about 20 close aides and family members, the intelligence official told the Times, Ayatollah Khamenei would seek to take assets valued at about $95 billion, according to a 2013 Reuters investigation, much of it hidden in semi-state charitable foundations.

Khamenei’s Moscow Escape Plan Would, If Followed, Put Him in Company With Array of Despots

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