Russia is providing sanctuary to Bashar Al-Assad, having transported the former Syrian leader there “in the most secure way possible” after the collapse of his government, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said in an interview Tuesday.

“He is secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation,” Sergei Ryabkov told NBC News, becoming the first Russian official to confirm Assad’s presence in the country.

“I have no idea what is going on with him right now,” Ryabkov said, adding that it “would be very wrong for me to elaborate on what happened and how it was resolved.”

President Bashar Al-Assad during a visit to Moscow in March 2023. The Kremlin said on Monday that President Vladimir Putin had made the decision to grant asylum in Russia to Assad.

Asked if the Kremlin would hand over Assad for trial, Ryabkov said Russia is not a party to the convention that established the International Criminal Court.

Assad “was accused by the same group of countries and governments that continuously defeat attempts to live their own ways as it happened in Iraq, in Libya and in many more,” Ryabkov said, adding that it was “amazing, but it is also very revealing,” that the US “configures its reaction and response” depending on whom the court is prosecuting.

Whoever ends up governing Syria, be it the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group, which led militants as they stormed across Syria, or someone else, Ryabkov said, Russia “forcefully and strongly” believes that Syria “should be sovereign, unified and integral.” “We will not have a situation there, hopefully, that will mean separation of parts of Syria from one another,” he added.