President Vladimir V. Putin has lengthy operated inside the confines of a good safety bubble, which grew to become even tighter and extra isolating throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The sprawling crimson fortress of the Kremlin, which Russian officers claimed was the goal of a Ukrainian drone assault on Wednesday, incorporates each the president’s official residence and his fundamental workplace, making it the guts of that bubble.
The company chargeable for defending the president, the Federal Guard Service — recognized by its Russian initials, F.S.O. — hardly ever confirms Mr. Putin’s whereabouts or discusses his actions. It typically closes areas adjoining to the Kremlin, notably Red Square, to the general public.
Over the previous few years, drones have been banned from flying over the Kremlin and the encircling space. Security officers deploy particular gadgets to down any within the neighborhood.
When the Russians claimed to take out two Ukrainian drones above the Kremlin — round 2:30 a.m. native time on Wednesday, in accordance with movies reviewed by The New York Times — Mr. Putin was at a sprawling compound about 20 miles to the west, his spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, informed reporters. The compound is situated within the elite suburb of Novo-Ogaryovo, alongside the Moscow River.
Mr. Putin travels continuously between the compound and the Kremlin in a prolonged motorcade. The wealthy residents of close by compounds grumble quietly that the F.S.O. closes the highway to different site visitors whereas the president is in transit.
Russian media experiences have advised that, for the reason that begin of the coronavirus disaster, Mr. Putin has spent extra time on the compound or at one other rural unfold northeast of Moscow, close to Lake Valdai.
While the huge grounds of the Kremlin include the official presidential residence, it’s extra ceremonial than sensible. Only lately did Mr. Putin publicly point out the existence of a personal house that he claimed to make use of continuously — an uncommon occasion of him discussing his residing preparations.
“I have an apartment here, where I have been spending a lot of time lately, working, spending nights very often,” he informed reporters when President Xi Jinping of China visited Moscow on the finish of March.
Both his fundamental workplace and his house are within the Senate Palace, a yellow domed construction that was seen in video footage displaying what seems to be a drone exploding. The palace additionally incorporates Catherine Hall, a hovering blue and white round reception room the place Mr. Putin maintain ceremonies, akin to handing out state awards, and the dome itself covers the presidential library.
The Kremlin fortress holds varied vacationer sights, like a museum of Czarist artifacts and jewels, and a medieval Russian Orthodox church the place some czars are interred. It can also be the central working venue of the presidential administration, though solely the closest advisers to Mr. Putin spend time working close to his workplace. The relaxation are in an workplace constructing outdoors the Kremlin partitions.
Even when Mr. Putin seems to be within the Kremlin, he could not really be there, in accordance with a former F.S.O. captain who defected. The Russian president has established similar workplaces in a number of areas, all furnished and embellished the identical in each element, together with matching desks and wall hangings, in accordance with the previous captain, Gleb Karakulov. Official experiences have typically described him as being in a single place when he was really elsewhere, Mr. Karakulov informed a London-based opposition news outlet, the Dossier Center, in early April.
The safety measures across the Kremlin can obfuscate others’ areas, too. Since the arrival of G.P.S. monitoring, the sign within the neighborhood of the fortress typically disappears or is teleported to an airport greater than 20 miles outdoors Moscow. Taxi fares have been recognized to leap accordingly, as if the passenger traveled to the airport, not central Moscow.
Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com