Ex-employee of the KGB and the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia Sergey Zhirnov, in an interview with Unian, spoke about the installation of an air defense system both in Moscow and near Putin's residences.
"Moscow does not need to demonstrate anything because the demonstration took place in December at the Diaghilevo and Engels airfields. People underestimate what happened. These are two airfields of strategic aviation of the Russian Federation, where there are bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. These airfields must be better defended than the Kremlin. First of all, Engels airfield, where about 37 strategic bombers are deployed. If you bomb them all, Putin will lose one of the components of the nuclear triad. And in this sense, everything was already shown to him in December: where he can "fly", how he can "fly". Engels airfield was attacked twice with a difference of three weeks. Therefore, Putin understands all this very well, he does not need to show anything else.
Air defense in Moscow is a strange story. From a military point of view, this is absolute nonsense. Publicly demonstrating air defense is telling the enemy where the defense is. And if you know where the protection is, then you can hit it or bypass it. As a rule, protection is kept secret.
According to one version, Putin could put air defense in Moscow in order to simulate an attack under a false flag, an attack by Ukrainians on Moscow. They will shoot down a couple of missiles, and one missile will destroy a residential building. All this, of course, will pass through all media channels, and they will say - "that's how bad Ukrainians are".
I really did not like the last statement of Podolyak, who said: "Tremble, and it will fly to Moscow in due time." This is what he shouldn't have said. I am telling you my vision from France, from Europe. Because Ukraine now has a very great authority and an accumulated positive image of the victim country. While Russia is bombing you, you are strongly supported by Western public opinion and politicians, despite all the differences in approaches and so on. If you switch to retaliatory strikes on Russian territory, you thus take away the opportunity to talk about yourself as soon as about the victim. When Podolyak said this, I tensed up a lot. I think this is a political mistake. You can't do this. For you, military targets such as Dyagilevo and Engels may be legitimate. He said it too generalized, it could be understood as you like. And it was misinterpreted. In such things now, you need to be very careful."
