According to Russian authorities, the Ukrainians attempted to assassinate Vladimir Putin using two drones packed with explosives.
Yet Putin would be paranoid. Several of his mansions are said to have similar interior decorations, so that no one knows where he is exactly when he is on video conferences. The places where he stays are probably bombproof.
And the Ukrainians would have sent two pathetic drones to the Kremlin to kill him, without really knowing if he was sleeping there?
Come on, Vladimir, do you really want us to swallow this snake?
Additionally, Russian authorities revealed that Putin was not in the Kremlin that night.
We really do not see why the Ukrainian army would have perpetrated such an attack, especially since it opens the door to Russian reprisals against Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the extreme, undisciplined Ukrainian mercenaries might have attempted this attack, but again, the result is so unlikely that one wonders why they would have wasted their equipment in this way.
Set up
The hypothesis of a coup set up by the Russians therefore seems the most probable. By whom, exactly? Probably by people trying to inflame Russian national sentiment and build popular support for Putin, making him look like a victim. By people who have an interest in seeing the conflict escalate sharply.
Moreover, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament asked the government to respond to the assassination attempt “by using weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Ukrainian government”.
Such a threat could slow down the visits of foreign leaders to Ukraine and seriously complicate the day-to-day decision-making of Ukrainian elected officials.
Russian propaganda
Note also the accusation of the Russians against the Americans. The latter would have ordered the attack against Putin.
Russian propaganda kills two birds with one stone. She tries to discredit the Ukrainian authorities who in fact would not decide anything, which is at the very least doubtful given the sacrifices of the Ukrainians. She also tries to discredit the United States which, without faith or law, would break all conventions and would go so far as to assassinate Putin.
It is true that many wish Putin was dead. But that’s not the kind of thing leaders of big states do to each other, because such assassinations risk triggering blood feuds that eventually affect all leaders.
If Joe Biden really wanted to assassinate Putin, he would surely find a way to do it, and vice versa for Putin.
In short, if this assassination attempt is a set-up by the Russian services, as it seems to be, it reveals a certain disarray of the Russian leaders.
If it comes from undisciplined Ukrainian forces, then the Russian reaction is completely disproportionate to the real threat, and it is also a sign of disarray.