"Inadequate": Putin Ignored The Most Intense Drone Attack On Moscow Since The Start Of The War

Instead, the Kremlin leader wished the residents of Tatarstan a “happy Sabantuy.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has remained publicly silent for more than a day, ignoring the heaviest drone attack on Moscow and the Moscow region since the start of the war, which left 17 people injured, sent a drone crashing into a residential building, caused two shopping centers in the capital to catch fire, and triggered an explosion at an oil refinery in Kapotnya.

On the day of the attack, when the sky over Moscow was shrouded in black smoke and “fuel oil rains” fell across the region, Putin was in Kazan attending the ASEAN summit. In his speech, he spoke about building a “multipolar world” and trade in national currencies, and he also held meetings with the Sultan of Brunei and the prime ministers of East Timor, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and the leader of the Philippines.

Putin promised the Sultan of Brunei that they would develop joint tourism initiatives, the Prime Minister of Cambodia—educational opportunities in Russia for students from his country; and following the summit, he commented on the agreement between the U.S. and Iran, which, as Putin asserted, would stabilize global food and energy markets.

At a meeting with the head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Putin praised the “fine civilian vessels” being built for passenger transport on the Volga River, and wished the residents of Tatarstan a “happy Sabantuy.” “I wish you all the very best,” Putin said as he left Kazan.

On Friday, Putin chaired a Security Council meeting, during which he once again did not mention the drone attack. “Today we have a report from Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov on one of the areas of our foreign policy,” Putin said as he opened the Security Council meeting.

By ignoring yesterday’s strike on Moscow, Putin sought to project “calm,” thereby shaping public sentiment regarding the Ukrainian attack. But people perceived the president’s silence “as evidence that he is either out of touch or indifferent to the people’s suffering,” writes political analyst Abbas Galliamov.

“To pull off stunts like this, you need a very high level of basic trust. People must genuinely believe that the president himself understands everything correctly and always tells the truth. And after four years of being told that ‘everything is going according to plan,’ that basic level of trust simply doesn’t exist,” explains Galliamov.

State television—the main source of information for tens of millions of Russian pensioners—is also ignoring the drone raid. In the morning news broadcasts on “Channel One,” the raid was covered for 20 seconds, and on “Russia-1,” for 36 seconds. In the evening programs, the topic disappeared entirely.

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