The main topic of the weekend for the russian propaganda media was, as expected, the russian Navy parade in st. petersburg with the participation of the russian president and some African leaders who remained after the russia-Africa summit. As putin delivered a heartfelt speech about the outstanding role of sailors and how “the russian Navy faithfully and reverently serves our country,” most muscovites waited in vain for the authorities to comment on the latest drone attack on the capital. Indeed, on the night of July 30, dramatic events took place in the center of moscow: drone explosions damaged the facades of two towers of the “moscow city” government complex, injured people, closed Vnukovo airport and the entire airspace over moscow and the moscow region. However, none of the morning newscasts on federal russian channels mentioned the overnight drone attack, focusing instead on reports of the navy parade and putin’s speech. The anchors of the main propaganda channel “Channel One” ignored the attack in two morning news blocks and began their programs with congratulations to the sailors and details of the parade. Rossiya 1 aired only one edition of Vesti, almost entirely devoted to the parade and putin’s conversation with journalists following the russia-Africa summit. For NTV, the news about the parade, natural disasters in the regions of russia and the anniversary of i. wiener also seemed more important. VDTRK, RBC and some regional TV channels reported on the attack in their morning newscasts, but later the topic disappeared from the air. Reportedly, at around 11 a.m., the management of the TV channels received a ban from the authorities to cover these events.
Why did the russian media react in such a way to the attack on government facilities in moscow?
Most likely, this decision was made by putin’s entourage in order not to ruin his mood before the parade in st. petersburg. After all, against the backdrop of the kremlin’s “victorious” rhetoric and putin’s claims that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has “failed,” shelling of moscow has recently become a regular occurrence. This month, there were two of them – on July 4 (in the area of the new moscow) and on the night of July 24, when one of the drones hit the building of the russian ministry of defense.
Thus, the silence of the media was the result of the kremlin’s group of shoigu-gerasimov’s complete control over the russian media. In order not to lose putin’s trust, the coverage of the situation with the “smo” has recently been carried out according to the “dark orders” from the russian ministry of defense, which require concealing the military failures of the army. After the arrest of well-known critics of russia’s military actions in Ukraine, including girkin, the number of cases of falsification of the alleged successes of the russian army in Ukraine has significantly increased. The publications of military commanders are increasingly exaggerating Ukrainian losses and understating russian ones, inventing fantastic stories such as the defeat of an entire company of Ukrainian armored vehicles by a single russian tank. The fact that on July 29, the Ukrainian Armed Forces successfully advanced in at least three areas of the frontline, and on July 28 and 29, they struck at russian military and logistics facilities in Crimea, is being carefully concealed from the russian audience.
Because of the threat of incurring putin’s wrath, shoigu informed him about the UAV attack only after the parade and characterized it as “another attempt to stop the attack by Ukrainian drones.” For the average russian, “moscow city” is almost as much a symbol of power as the kremlin. It was claimed that the attack allegedly caused minor damage to the facades of two office towers. Until recently, it was concealed from the public that one of the drones had struck a government complex that includes the ministry of economy, the ministry of industry and trade, and the ministry of digital transformation, and employs 5,500 civil servants. It was only after eyewitnesses published photos and videos of documents that flew out of the windows of the IQ-quarter building after the explosion, including cost estimates for the russian information technology fund, that forced the military to admit that the central government buildings had been hit. Moreover, one of the damaged institutions with a seemingly peaceful name, the ministry of industry and trade, is actually the developer of the Forpost-RU strike and reconnaissance UAV.
It is not known when exactly putin learned about the strikes on the “moscow city” complex, but during the entire parade he looked sad and tense, and the general atmosphere of celebration was not joyful – everyone in attendance looked up at the sky with caution. And when putin went up to the podium, where representatives of African countries and the navy were waiting for him, he was so confused that he greeted the foreign guests, but for some reason ignored the sailor’s hand outstretched to him.
Thus, the drone attacks on moscow prove to the residents of both the russian countryside and the capital that “smo” is not going according to putin’s plan and that retaliation applies to all citizens of the russian federation. Only the cessation of hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of russian troops from Ukraine can change the situation.
