Vladimir Putin rages after an alleged “act of sabotage” by Ukrainian troops. One sentence shows how confused the statements from the Kremlin are.
MOSCOW – Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out a “terrorist attack”. In Kremlin jargon, “neo-Nazis” from Kiev are responsible for this. There is no evidence of this so far. The investigative findings of the Russian authorities are just as inconclusive. All that is known so far is that shootings broke out in several villages in the Bryansk region, near the Ukrainian and Belarusian borders.
The Russian secret service FSB claims that two civilians were killed in the “attack”. Accordingly, “Ukrainian saboteurs” are behind it. The government in Ukraine vehemently denies this. Russia is not being attacked, stressed Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It is now clear that a partisan group led by a right-wing extremist from Germany is behind the action.
Putin’s Supposed Fight Against “Neo-Nazis”
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin made a meaningful statement after a convened meeting of the Security Council. “We will destroy them,” he said, according to the Russian news agency TASS. “They” are the “Neo-Nazis” mentioned at the beginning. A narrative that Putin has repeated regularly since the invasion began last February and also mentioned in his most recent State of the Union address.
Subsequently, Putin said: “I am confident that the same leaders [der ukrainischen „Neonazis“; Anm. d. Red.] today’s attack will be forgotten. Nobody will pay attention to it.” A sentence that sounds confused and angry at the same time. It remained unclear why the “terrorist attack”, as the Kremlin classified the event, should be forgotten. The government in Moscow had previously done everything to draw attention to the action. Now apparently “nobody” should pay attention to it.
For example, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Thursday that the entire international community must look at Ukraine’s terrorist actions. “Become on the international stage [wir] continue to draw the international community’s attention to the attacks by these individuals,” he said, according to the news agencies TASS and Ria Novosti.
“Of course, all the details are checked and examined. […] Our security authorities will take care of all this. The information will come from them,” Peskow then pointed out. For the time being, however, the “terrorist attack” does not affect the “special operation” in Ukraine. The news agency reports Interfax. Whether this is the case can only be judged in several weeks. (tu)