First it was a cloud of smoke, now it’s questions that are hanging over the Kremlin — but how much fire is there to Russia’s dramatic accusations?
Moscow’s claim that the United States orchestrated a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack, vehemently denied by Kyiv and Washington, has fueled a high-stakes mystery.
NBC News has viewed two videos filmed from the same perspective, which appear to show that two objects flew over the Kremlin approximately 15 minutes apart. The second object seems to strike the building causing a small fire. It was unclear where the objects were launched from and whether they exploded or were shot down.
But former intelligence officers, diplomats, military officials and analysts expressed strong skepticism about Russia’s narrative, but said it was too early to draw conclusions about the incident — not least because Russia provided no evidence to support its claims.
The incident has left most observers with three possible scenarios that William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, laid out in an interview: Russia staged the incident to justify further aggression and mobilization against Ukraine, partisans orchestrated the attack from within Moscow, or Ukraine managed to fly a long-range drone into the heart of the enemy capital.
“This latter scenario seems to be very unlikely,” he told NBC News.
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