After the attack on the Kremlin in early May, which the Russian authorities called an “assassination attempt” on Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian drones almost hit the second capital residence of the Russian president, and at the moment when he was in it.

During the drone raid on the capital on Tuesday, May 30, Putin was very likely at Novo-Ogaryovo, which posed a direct threat to his security, a source close to the Kremlin, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Moscow Times.

According to him, Putin was raised early in the morning by the security service due to an air threat.

Drones that attacked the western regions of the Moscow region were shot down, in particular, in the villages of Romashkovo and Razdory, State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein said shortly after the raid. From the list he published, it follows that the air defense systems neutralized the drones when they were about 10 km from Putin’s residence.

One of the residents of the cooperative on Rublyovka next to the presidential residence told The Moscow Times that the very loud sounds of the explosions woke him up around 6 am.

The fact that Putin was forced to wake up earlier than usual was also reported by his press secretary Dmitry Peskov. “The president’s working day started very early,” he said at a briefing the day before. According to Peskov, Putin “received direct information” through the Ministry of Defense, the mayor of Moscow, the governor of the Moscow region and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Whether the president spent the night in Novo-Ogaryovo or elsewhere, Peskov did not specify.

Russian authorities began preparing for a possible attack on the presidential residence back in the winter, when the Ukrainians hit the Engels and Diaghilevo military airfields in the Saratov and Ryazan regions.

In January, Pantsir S-1 anti-aircraft missile and gun systems appeared on buildings near the Kremlin in the center of Moscow, as well as 10 kilometers from Novo-Ogaryovo, near the village of Zarechye, according to the Sirena telegram channel, run by supporters of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Another Pantsir-S1 was spotted near one of Putin’s residences in northwest Novgorod Oblast around the same time.

And although the authorities instructed the state media not to whip up panic, call the drone attack successfully repulsed and praise the work of the Ministry of Defense despite the hit of three UAVs in residential buildings, Putin, appearing in public after the raid, looked tired and spoke uncertainly.

He assessed the work of air defense systems as “regular” and “satisfactory”, while recognizing that “there is something to work on.”

“We faced the same problems in Syria,” he said, adding that the capital’s air defenses needed “compacting.”

The head of the State Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, commenting on the attack, said that, in principle, one should not rely on air defense systems. “We have a very large country, and there will always be a loophole where a drone can fly by bypassing air defense areas,” he said. 

(C)THE MOSCOW TIMES 2023