Russia says foiled Kremlin drone attack aimed at Putin
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00:00 Kremlin has announced via Russian state media that Ukraine has attempted a drone strike
00:06 in Moscow with the aim of killing the President Vladimir Putin.
00:11 Now the Kremlin says Putin was not injured in that attempted attack and his work schedule
00:16 is I quote "continuing as normal".
00:20 A video circulating on Russian social media today does appear to show a plume of smoke
00:26 over the Kremlin.
00:28 So far there's been no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities.
00:33 Well covering this story for us is Douglas Herbert, our Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator.
00:38 First of all Doug, just tell us what Russian state media is saying this afternoon.
00:43 Russian state media and it's clear we have to emphasize that these are the main state
00:48 run, state controlled propaganda news outlets, Uria Novosti among them, the TASS news agency
00:54 as well.
00:55 They are citing the presidency, they are citing statements, communications from Putin's presidency.
01:01 We could show you one of them, it's on the screen right there.
01:04 It's in Russian, the headline essentially says it directly pointing the finger at Kiev
01:09 saying Ukraine, Kiev has attempted an attempt, an assassination attempt if you will by drones
01:16 on the Kremlin.
01:17 This goes in line with basically what the flashes have been out of these news agencies
01:21 that two drones according to these state, these propaganda news outlets, two drones
01:27 attempted to strike the Kremlin.
01:29 There was some video circulating on Russian social media sites showing smoke over the
01:34 Kremlin sort of out of context.
01:35 You don't actually know what caused that smoke, where did it come from.
01:39 The drones that allegedly were used to target the Kremlin were disabled by the Russian,
01:47 by military and special service forces.
01:51 There was no, Putin was not injured.
01:53 He was outside the Kremlin according once again to the propaganda outlets.
01:57 He was in his residence in Nova Oguryova which is outside of Moscow, a short distance.
02:03 Russia's saying, the Kremlin's saying, the presidency saying, the Kremlin is considering
02:08 this a terrorist act that it was an attempt on Putin's life and that they will retaliate
02:16 as they see fit.
02:17 Now there's the factual part, let's put that all aside.
02:21 What does it all mean, what happened here?
02:23 The context is there have, there has been, Russia has reported many drone strikes in
02:29 recent months.
02:31 The provenance of those strikes, who launched them has not always been clear but in most
02:36 of those cases Russia has either presumed or pointed the finger directly at Ukrainian
02:41 saboteurs, Ukrainian military.
02:44 Ukraine has not always claimed responsibility for those attacks but we have seen with growing
02:49 frequency a number of strikes, a number of attacks, Nadia, in which it's perhaps been
02:54 convenient for Ukraine to sow confusion or not to right away claim responsibility for
02:59 these attacks.
03:00 So, is it possible that there was an attempted drone strike on the Kremlin launched by Kiev
03:07 in some way?
03:08 Of course it is possible, of course it is plausible.
03:11 It would be taking this to a whole new level, a dimension.
03:14 Many of these drone strikes have been on infrastructure, on targets, on Russian soil.
03:20 More recently in Crimea it was against an oil depot with those big fires and the smoke
03:25 that we saw over the weekend.
03:26 This would obviously be on a drastically bigger scale if it were actually the Kremlin being
03:31 targeted.
03:32 I will say this, on the other hand, sure, you can't rule out that this is an attempted
03:36 drone strike, yes, an attempt by Kiev.
03:39 On the other hand you also can't rule out that this is a two-edged sword because this
03:43 plays perfectly into the hands of the Kremlin propaganda, of Putin's rhetoric and his
03:49 narrative which has been that Russia, not Ukraine, but Russia is under attack by Ukrainian
03:54 Nazis.
03:55 The Russian population needs to pull out all stops to protect themselves.
03:59 Putin can cast himself as the figure that is protecting Russians.
04:04 This story is perfect to whip up more fear and more paranoia in a country where the propaganda
04:09 is on full throttle 24 hours a day, already having the entire country on a footing of
04:14 fear and paranoia.
04:16 So plausible?
04:17 Possible?
04:18 Sure.
04:19 But the propaganda works perfectly for Putin's narrative purposes right now at this hour.
04:23 Douglas Herbert, thank you very much indeed for your analysis on this story that we're
04:27 watching obviously very closely out of Moscow.
04:30 We'll leave it there for now, Doug, but of course we'll come back to this as and when
04:34 we have more information coming out of either Russia or Ukraine.