Experts rule out the start of the marches from Kiev. Who benefits from Putin's "assassination attempt"?

Analysts and experts who spoke to Beyond the News agreed that Russia has no evidence that it accused Kiev of "attempting to assassinate" President Vladimir Putin using two small marches targeting the Kremlin, but expected its response to be harsh, and could include an attempt to eliminate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Although Alexander Gornov, a professor at the Moscow Institute of International Journalism, defended the Russian narrative accusing Kiev of attempting to assassinate Putin, he believes that Moscow will not provide any evidence for this accusation, and that the real proof will be in the reaction it will implement.

Moscow has accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Putin, as the Kremlin announced that the Russian army and intelligence disabled two drones that tried to attack the Kremlin Palace in the center of the Russian capital, stressing that Putin was not hurt by the Ukrainian attack, which he described as a terrorist act. The Ukrainian presidency denied any involvement in the attack.

Speaking to the episode (2023/5/3) of the program "Beyond the News", Gornov suggested that the march that targeted the Kremlin was launched from Russian territory, not Ukrainian, and perhaps from neighboring buildings close to the targeted building, recalling that Moscow and its suburbs were previously connected to many Ukrainian marches.

However, former US diplomat in Moscow, Dr. Donald Jensen, questioned the validity of the Russian version, stressing that Moscow does not have any evidence to accuse Kiev, in addition to the fact that Ukraine does not have drones up to that extent, likely a third party who carried out the attack on the Kremlin, which he considered insulting to Russian forces.

The U.S. guest supported Ukrainian President Zelensky's statement during a press conference in Helsinki: "We are not attacking Putin or Moscow, we are fighting on our soil," and Jensen stressed that the best place for Putin is to go to trial in The Hague.

Regarding the US position, the former diplomat in Moscow said that it is likely that no official position will be issued from Washington until there is sufficient evidence of the incident and to ascertain the credibility of the Russian narrative.

Incoming possibilities

In a military reading of the "Kremlin offensive," military expert and strategist Maj. Gen. Fayez al-Duwairi spoke of several possibilities based on the Russian and Ukrainian visions.

If Kiev is responsible, as Moscow says, a small plane cannot fly hundreds of kilometers, and he wondered how the Russians discovered this plane, which he said its type was not yet known.

He raised the possibility that Ukraine carried out the attack through groups operating inside Russian territory, especially since these aircraft can be easily obtained. As for the Russian accusation against Ukraine, Al-Duwairi said that he noticed in the video shown by the Kremlin planes moving towards the Kremlin's dome and then exploded, without hitting the target so that they did not hit the dome or mast, and drew attention to the fact that the video shows the explosion of the plane, although no missile appeared to blow it up, and here Al-Duwairi suggested several ways to do so, including that the Russians blew up the two drones using lasers.

However, the Russian guest responded to Duwairi by saying that anti-air missiles are not used as anti-drones, but rather electronic anti-aircraft missiles in this regard.

In the context of his analysis, Al-Duwairi wondered about the beneficiary of the event, highlighting that Ukraine is definitely the losing party from it, and expected that the Russian response will include political and military goals, whether by eliminating President Zelensky or destroying the places where the political game is run, and hitting infrastructure targets that include energy facilities.

The professor at the Moscow Institute of International Journalism ruled out that Moscow would destroy the administrative building of the Ukrainian presidency or the buildings of ministries and parliament, despite its ability to do so, he said, because it did not do so in the past.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said earlier that after the "terrorist attack on the Kremlin", only what he considered the option of physical neutralization of the Ukrainian president and his aides remained.