Fact Check: viral claim of Bashar al-Assad visit to his aunt’s home in Moscow is false
Claim: The video shows Bashar al-Assad visiting his aunt’s home in Moscow in 2024.
Fact: The claim is false. The video is from 2017 and shows Assad visiting wounded soldiers.
Hyderabad: On December 20, 2024, thousands of Syrians gathered in Damascus’s Umayyad Square, celebrating the establishment of a new government with fireworks and displays of a new flag. The event followed the return of many Syrians to the country after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Amid these celebrations, a video went viral, claiming to show Assad visiting his aunt’s home in Moscow. The video, shared by an X user, was accompanied by the caption: “Bashar al-Assad visits his aunt in her humble home in Moscow, the Republic of Russia, where he took refuge” (translated from Arabic). (Archive)
The 1:30-minute video shows Assad, along with his family, visiting a house and being warmly received by a lady and others in the household.
Similar claims can be seen here and here. (Archive 1, Archive 2)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is not recent nor show Assad visiting his aunt.
A reverse image search led us to the same footage posted on YouTube by the Syrian Presidency channel on September 16, 2018, under the title ‘The hero, Ayham Mahmoud Donia, after his injury, received President al-Assad and his family himself, walking on his feet’.
This hinted that the video is old and unrelated to recent events.
Further, a keyword search led to a report from Al Yawm Al Saabie on June 26, 2017, which described Assad and his family visiting wounded soldiers in the Hama countryside.
The report included the same video, with the description stating that the woman in the footage is the mother of a wounded Syrian soldier.
The report explained that one of the soldiers, Ayham Mahmoud Donia, had been severely injured but defied expectations by walking again to greet Assad. This visit was part of the regime’s ‘Wounded of the Nation Program,’ aimed at supporting soldiers wounded in the conflict.
Therefore, the claim that the video shows Assad visiting his aunt in Moscow is false. The footage is from a 2017 visit where Assad met injured soldiers in Syria.
(This story was originally published by newsmeter, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
