Vladimir Putin is trying to play down the attacks on the Russian capital.
The president is forced to do this as he has “limited opportunities to take revenge”.
This is what the American think tank ISW writes in its latest report.
Early Tuesday morning, drones attacked two apartment buildings in Moscow, in an attack Russia claims Ukraine is behind.
On the night of Wednesday, it exploded again on Russian soil, this time in an oil tank at a refinery in the Krasnodar region. Russia again accuses Ukraine.
At the same time, Putin is trying to make it look like Ukraine has responded to Russian attacks carried out in the near future – because he can thereby justify inaction. In this way, Putin can make it appear that Russia “has already taken revenge”, writes the Washington-based Institute of War.
Want to provoke a response
According to the Russian president, Ukraine is trying to provoke a response and make Russia “mirror” their actions, the report shows, which also highlights the theory of why Putin is acting like this:
“He is doing it to avoid revealing the limited opportunities he has to take revenge against Ukraine”.
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry wrote that “the Kiev regime carried out a terrorist attack with unmanned aerial vehicles against targets in the city of Moscow”, according to local media.
Terror instead of war attack
That Russia calls the attacks “terrorism” is completely in line with how the Kremlin usually expresses itself, says lieutenant colonel Joakim Paasikivi.
– By calling it terrorism, the Russian side avoids taking major military measures, which require mobilization and other things. When you call it terrorism, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, it becomes a police question and you can grade your answer, he tells TV4 Nyheterna.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks in Russia.