The British-born wife of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad does not want a divorce, a Kremlin spokesman said.
Turkish media reports suggested that Asma al-Assad wanted to end her marriage and leave Russia, where she and her husband were granted asylum after a rebel coalition overthrew the former president’s regime and took control of Damascus.
Asked about the reports at a press conference, Dmitry Peskov said: “No, they do not correspond to reality.”
He also denied reports that Assad had been detained in Moscow and that his property had been frozen.
Russia was a staunch ally of the Assad regime and provided it with military support during the civil war.
But Turkish media reports suggested on Sunday that the Assads were living under strict restrictions in the Russian capital, and that the former Syrian first lady had filed for divorce and wanted to return to London.
Ms Assad has dual Syrian-British citizenship, but the British Foreign Secretary has previously said she will not be allowed to return to Britain.
David Lammy told parliament earlier this month: “I want it confirmed that she is a sanctioned individual and not welcome here in Britain.”
He added that he would “do everything in my power” to ensure that no member of the Assad family “finds a place in Britain”.
In a statement attributed to Bashar al-Assad last week, he said he never intended to flee Syria but was flown from a Russian military base at Moscow’s request.
Asma al-Assad, 49, was born in Britain in 1975 to Syrian parents and grew up in Acton, west London.
She moved to Syria in 2000 at the age of 25 and married her husband just months after he succeeded his father as president.
During her 24 years as Syria’s first lady, Mrs. Assad was a subject of curiosity in the Western media.
A controversial 2011 Vogue profile called her “a rose in the desert” and described her as “the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies.” The article has since been removed from the Vogue website.
Just a month later, Mrs. Assad was criticized for keeping quiet while her husband violently suppressed pro-democracy activists at the start of Syria’s civil war.
The conflict subsequently claimed the lives of around half a million people, with her husband accused of using chemical weapons against civilians.
In 2016, Mrs. Assad told Russian state television that she had rejected a deal to offer her safe passage from the war-torn country to assist her husband.
She announced she was being treated for breast cancer in 2018 and said she made a full recovery a year later.
She was diagnosed with leukemia and began treatment for the disease in May this year, then-President Assad’s office announced.
A statement said she would “temporarily withdraw” from public engagements.
