In the wake of Russian claims that Ukraine had launched a drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences, three Central Asian presidents held a phone call with Putin, during which they condemned the attack. Two others made statements to the same effect.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry responded with surprise. In commenting on the calls, a spokesperson said that “reacting to Russian fakes is beneath the dignity of these Central Asian states.”

Since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Central Asian governments have attempted to maintain a kind of balance between the two sides, or at least the appearance of one. This balance has always been weighted in Russia’s favor, however, given geopolitical and geoeconomic circumstances.

The “Attack”

On December 29, Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that Ukraine had launched a drone attack against one of Putin’s residences in Valdai on the night of December 28-29. Lavrov said that Ukraine had carried out a “terrorist attack using 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles against the Russian president’s state residence in the Novgorod region.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that its air-defense forces had shot down all of the drones, more than half of them hundreds of kilometers away from the alleged target, and Lavrov said there were no reports of casualties or damage. 

Lavrov promised a response to the attack and suggested that Russia would reconsider its position within the ongoing peace talks. 

The next day, Russia presented its evidence – of which Meduza has an excellent analysis – including a map with alleged drone flightpaths drawn on it, a video of a downed drone, and a witness statement. “It ain’t much,” Meduza remarked, a sentiment essentially echoed in reporting by the Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed U.S. official who claimed that........

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