‘He said there was nothing special about it’ Putin reportedly comments on Kremlin drone attack in closed meeting with journalists
Andrey Kolesnikov, a special correspondent for the Russian newspaper Kommersant and a member of the Kremlin press pool, said in his report on Moscow’s May 9 Victory Day parade that Vladimir Putin has privately commented on last week’s drone attack on the Kremlin. The Russian president reportedly spoke about the incident during a closed meeting with the heads of Russian media outlets on May 8. Independent journalist Farida Rustamova drew attention to Putin’s reported remarks in a Telegram post on Tuesday.
Kolesnikov described Putin’s reaction to the attack as follows:
Yesterday evening, Vladimir Putin met with the editors-in-chief of Russian media outlets and, according to Kommersant, said in response to a question about the drone that flew past the [Kremlin Senate] dome several days ago that there was nothing special about the drone, that it was made from wire and modern material, and that these same kinds of improvised drones have flown into the Hmeimim base in Syria, so it’s familiar, and that there were only 400 grams of TNT. He didn’t seem to attach the same importance to the incident that the rest of the world did.
Putin has not commented publicly on the drone attack. Information about the incident was reported by his press service, which said that two drones attacked the president’s Kremlin residence on the night of May 2. (Putin is indeed known to have an office in the Senate Palace.)
The Kremlin’s press service initially reported that the drones were shot down, but that later proved to be false: a widely shared video shows one of the drones exploding in the immediate vicinity of the flagpole on top of the Senate Palace, sending burning fragments onto the building’s roof.
The Kremlin has called the attack a “planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt on the Russian president” and accused Ukraine of being responsible. Kyiv, meanwhile, has denied any involvement. Independent analysts are divided: some believe the incident was a false-flag attack carried out by Moscow itself, while others say Ukraine is the most likely culprit.