President Vladimir V. Putin has lengthy operated inside the confines of a good safety bubble, which turned even tighter and extra isolating in the course of the coronavirus pandemic. The sprawling pink fortress of the Kremlin, which Russian officers claimed was the goal of a Ukrainian drone assault on Wednesday, accommodates each the president’s official residence and his predominant workplace, making it the center of that bubble.
The company liable 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, significantly Crimson Sq., to the general public.
Over the previous few years, drones have been banned from flying over the Kremlin and the encompassing space. Safety 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, based on movies reviewed by The New York Occasions — Mr. Putin was at a sprawling compound about 20 miles to the west, his spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, informed reporters. The compound is positioned within the elite suburb of Novo-Ogaryovo, alongside the Moscow River.
Mr. Putin travels often 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 studies have prompt 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.
Whereas the huge grounds of the Kremlin comprise the official presidential residence, it’s extra ceremonial than sensible. Solely just lately did Mr. Putin publicly point out the existence of a personal condo that he claimed to make use of often — an uncommon occasion of him discussing his residing preparations.
“I’ve an condo right here, the place I’ve been spending lots of time these days, working, spending nights fairly often,” he informed reporters when President Xi Jinping of China visited Moscow on the finish of March.
Each his predominant workplace and his condo are within the Senate Palace, a yellow domed construction that was seen in video footage exhibiting what seems to be a drone exploding. The palace additionally accommodates Catherine Corridor, a hovering blue and white round reception room the place Mr. Putin holds ceremonies, equivalent to handing out state awards, and the dome itself covers the presidential library.
The Kremlin fortress holds varied vacationer points of interest, like a museum of Czarist artifacts and jewels, and a medieval Russian Orthodox church the place some czars are interred. It is usually the central working venue of the presidential administration, though solely the closest advisers to Mr. Putin spend time working close to his workplace. The remainder are in an workplace constructing exterior the Kremlin partitions.
Even when Mr. Putin seems to be within the Kremlin, he could not truly be there, based on a former F.S.O. captain who defected. The Russian president has established an identical places of work in a number of places, all furnished and embellished the identical in each element, together with matching desks and wall hangings, based on the previous captain, Gleb Karakulov. Official studies have typically described him as being in a single place when he was truly elsewhere, Mr. Karakulov informed a London-based opposition information outlet, the File Heart, in early April.
The safety measures across the Kremlin can obfuscate others’ places, too. Because the creation 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 exterior Moscow. Taxi fares have been recognized to leap accordingly, as if the passenger traveled to the airport, not central Moscow.
Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting.
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