After a day of speculation, Russia on Sunday confirmed that ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family are in Moscow. A Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that Moscow granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said earlier that Assad had left Syria and given orders for a peaceful transfer of power and that it favoured a political solution to the crisis in Syria. "As a result of recent negotiations between B. Assad and several participants in the armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, he made the decision to resign from the presidency and leave the country, instructing a peaceful transfer of power," the ministry said, adding that Moscow was not involved in the negotiations.
The ministry added that the Syrian rebel leaders have agreed to guarantee the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria but it is not clear how long the security guarantee lasted. Russia holds a naval base in Tartus and a military airfield in Khmeimim.
Moscow was a staunch backer of Assad and had intervened in the civil war since 2015 keeping Assad in power until the rebels took over Damascus on Sunday.
Meanwhile, some sections of the Syrian society erupted in joy as the five-decade rule by the Assad regime - father and son- came to an end on Sunday. Thousands thronged the central Umayyad Square to celebrate the fall of the regime and drove around in cars, flashing peace signs.
"Thank you, thank you," an elderly woman told BBC. "The tyrant has fallen. The tyrant has fallen!". The woman said some of her family members had died under Assad's rule and some were in prison.
Another woman identified as Fatimen, who hails from north-west Idlib a stronghold of the rebels, told reporters that she "feels as if in a dream". She says for years she wouldn't have dared to say she hailed from Idlib for fear that any affiliation with the area in part held by Islamist rebels would provoke retaliation.
Celebrations were held in many European cities, including in Berlin, which saw jubilant Syrians waving flags to celebrate the downfall of Assad. "Finally we are free!” exclaimed Bassam Al-Hamada, 39, among 5,000 people at an exuberant rally in the capital of Germany.
Syrians also gathered in Athens, Belgrade, Istanbul, London, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna waving flags in the green, red, black and white colours of the Syrian opposition.