Al-Assad said in the interview it should not be those outside Syria who get to decide his future, telling ARD it should be up to the Syrian people.

CNN: Assad: U.S. trying to destabilize Syria

He was sent to Tomsk in Siberia to interview an out-of-work ballistics missiles expert, was ambushed in a field outside Osijek, Croatia when war broke out in Yugoslavia and undercover in Russia, tried to buy a MiG fighter jet from an arms dealer.

BBC: Jeremy Vine