Kremlin seeks to quell Assad divorce reports

Russia has denied claims that Bashar al-Assad's wife Asma wants to divorce the fallen Syrian dictator and return to Britain.

Media reports in Turkish and Arabic suggested she wanted to leave her husband after the family was ousted from power and granted asylum in Russia this month.

Asma al-Assad was born to Syrian parents but grew up in London before moving to Syria in 2000, the same year Bashar al-Assad became president. Dubbed the "Rose in the Desert" by Vogue in 2011, she "quickly became an international pariah as she stood by her husband" during the atrocities of the civil war, said The Telegraph.

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As the regime collapsed this month, the couple left their "life of luxury behind in a hurry", said Sky News, and now "reports suggest Asma has grown disillusioned". The former first lady apparently hopes to return to London for cancer treatment. But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the reports "do not correspond to reality".

While Asma is still a British citizen, Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said she would no longer be welcome, telling Parliament: "I will do everything I can in my power to ensure that none of that family find a place in the UK."