Amb. McFaul: Alleged drone attack was 'not an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin'

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

[marble falls]

1. Of course not. Why would Putin want to assassinate himself? He was in an armored limousine

... across Red Square, watching with binoculars.

[Warpy]

2. The Kremlin is where people in Moscow go to renew professional licenses

and pull building permits, it's mostly stuffed with bureaucrats, not masterminds.

It looked like whatever it is was shot down right over the Kremlin, possibly setting the roof on fire.

Ukraine had no reason to do this. Russian partisans do have reason but the one with the most motive is Putin.

It;'s a mere 6 days until the national patriotic wargasm, even though most parades have been canceled due to lack of military crap to parade around. 2 weeks from now, it wouldn't even make the news but they're talking about this one nonstop, something that kind of screams that it's a false flag operation to whip people into a patriotic frenzy and increase enlistment numbers.

Video was posted a week or so ago of a drone taking video above the Kremlin. I have to wonder if the same pranksters tried a similar night flight and shooting the large hobby drone down is what showered the roof with hot rocket fragments and started the fire.

[marble falls]

4. The Russians come up with these ideas and then execute them in a blundering manner. Their guilt ...

... almost always is so obvious.

[Warpy]

6. A week or two ago, video was released

from a drone flying over the Kremlin. It's impossible to verify the date of this stuff, it might have been from 5 years ago or it might have been new, there was nothing to date it.

However, if somebody else was buzzing the Kremlin for the lulz and did it at night so he wouldn't get caught, that would explain the heroic action by the missile operator spending 2 or 3 times what the drone cost to shoot it down.

BBC has decent video and the shadow the drone cast that made it look like a large hobby drone, no bombs, just buzzing past the dome before it was shot down.

Of course, Putin climbed right up on his martyr's cross and nobody has the clout to tell him to get down because he's making an arse of himself.

Note that the video is grainy and crappy and surfaced on Telegram. There is no way to verify any of it except for Putin's overreaction.

[marble falls]

7. This was such a foolish move.

[Warpy]

8. Yes, unless it really is a false flag

and if so, it was a hamfisted one.

It just seems highly unlikely Ukraine had anything to do with this directly. The only drones they've had with that kind of range is the old souped up drones that were so obsolete Russia didn't want them back in 1992.

Likely suspects are Chechens who don't like the anti mosque demos, anti Putin partisans, guys angry because they're gotten their "greetings" letters on their cell phones, or just some dumbasses.

[marble falls]

9. I saw the video. I think it was a false flag or maybe a Wagner bid to scare Putin into giving ...

... Wagner more arms and ammunition. Scare Putin a little bit.

[Warpy]

10. Wagner's another possibility and they have access to things ordinary Russians don't.

With so many oligarchs now raising their own armies, er, private security forces, the possibilities are numerous.

Did you notice the two guys climbing the stairs on the outside of the dome? The whole thing smells really, really fishy.

I think the one possibility we can rule out is Ukraine. If they're going to send something hundreds of kilometers up to Moscow, it's not going to be a dinky, slow drone. It's going to be another of those old Soviet things they souped up and it will do real damage.

[marble falls]

11. They don't tug beards. They make points. Too sloppy to have been the Ukraine armed forces. Plus ...

... the US has been pretty serious about them not staging attacks on Russia. An oil Depot or military airfield is one thing to shrug off, but an attack at Red Square or Putin's apt is a whole other thing.

[Warpy]

12. We've been deadly serious about civilian targets

but nobody seems to be kicking up a fuss about air fields, supply depots, and other military targets.

Some people out in the crank-o-sphere have noted how close to the flagpole atop the dome the drone was shot down, and have speculated that it was a symbolic attack to topple the Russian Federation flag.

I can think of several possibilities if that were true, none of them being Ukrainian and all of them signaling what a clusterfuck Russia is on the brink of becoming. The two guys climbing the stairs of the dome where the flagpole is might be one clue. Why would they send guys up there at night? Were they tasked with dropping the flag if the drone failed? Were they tipped off and carrying a jamming device? There are clues out there but we'll never know what they are.

It's well known Putler rarely goes to the Kremlin, that he spends his time in a bunker deep under it or another outside Moscow. To call this an assassination attempt is beyond silly.

[Sneederbunk]

3. False flag. Russia launched and shot down own drones.

[Baked Potato]

5. Looks like a project of The Order of the Bronze Beaver.