Whose Drones Are Attacking the Kremlin and Why Can’t Russia Stop Them?

In a week of big news (for example, Matt Mervis made his major league debut with the Cubs yesterday), one of the more bizarre stories was the “attack” on the Kremlin by two drones.  The Russians blamed Ukraine, accusing them of trying to assassinate Vladimir Putin.

Whether is what actually happened or whether it was a Russian “false flag” operation or something else is completely unclear.¹  In any case, what I don’t understand is why the Russians would accuse Ukraine of flying these drones to Moscow.  If I were Vladimir Putin, I would be embarrassed if the Ukrainians could fly two drones all the way to the Kremlin.  Instead of trumpeting it to the world, I would be trying to hide the fact.  What does this say about Russia’s air defenses if two slow moving drones can get all the way to Moscow and crash into the Kremlin? 

In 1987, Mathias Rust, an eighteen-year-old amateur West German pilot, flew a small private plane from Helsinki to Moscow and landed on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge by St. Basil's Cathedral in the center of Moscow.  The Soviet military was embarrassed, and then-General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev was able to use the incident as a way to force out some of his opponents.  That makes sense.  But Putin’s people almost glorying in the incompetence of the Russian military does not.  

At this point, we can only wonder what game Putin is playing.  Until then, we can only guess.
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¹ One of the few things that does seem clear is that the drones couldn’t have killed Putin.  They weren’t big enough and he seldom sleeps in the Kremlin.  See Henry Foy, Christopher Miller, and Polina Ivanova, “Kremlin drone ‘attack’ prompts theories over who to blame and what was the aim,” FT Weekend, May 6, 2023.