Following Ukraine's massive drone attack on President Putin's residence in Novgorod, (shown in the projected flight paths in the map above, from the Ukrainian 'Russian' site Meduza) Turkish TRT news interviewed Atlantic Council's Elisabeth Braw in London. What she said in the interview below (trimmed a little for length) might be considered unhinged and simply Western media narrative management, except for her position in the constellation of ex-Cold War think tanks that still guide and follow NATO intelligence agencies - MI6 and the CIA in particular. As Wikipedia notes: "Helena Elisabeth Braw (born December 2, 1973) is a Swedish security expert and former journalist active in Great Britain. She leads the Modern Deterrence project[1] at the defense and security think tank RUSI[2] in London. She is a senior fellow of the Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council.[3]" The Scowcroft Centre is strongly focused on Eastern Europe and on the coordination of institutions to cultivate anti-Russian disinformation, with links to the UK's Integrity Initiative and ex-Soviet state media networks. Braw meanwhile has written in detail on what she labels Russia's 'grey zone aggression' - where non-military activities are used to achieve similar goals under the radar. She expounded on these alleged activities to the UK parliament in April 2024, and has focused particularly on threats to undersea cables and pipelines.
What is astonishing about this interview is that Braw even manages to twist Donald Trump's strong reaction to what he heard direct from Vladimir Putin about the attempted strike, into some sort of dismissal of it, and an increasing mistrust in Russia. While this may be the case - as Trump is both fickle and vulnerable to manipulators - we can guess how he would react were he told the truth about the Ukrainian New Year's drone attack on a small family restaurant on the coast in Kherson - where three explosive and incendiary drones totally obliterated the building, killed 24 civilians and wounded 50 more. Ironically in the interview above, footage following that attack is shown without acknowledgement. Fortunately perhaps for those 'lying for Kiev', a tragic fire in a disco in Switzerland on New Year's Eve monopolised media coverage and sympathy - though the attack on Kherson was barely described and dismissed by Ukraine as a lie. But in both cases, Russia has the evidence, and is presenting it to the American embassy. The CIA denies that Ukraine was targeting Putin's residence, claiming military target near by - but given the CIA's obligatory involvement in targeting and execution of such attacks, has zero credibility. Most Western media parrot the CIA line, including the so-called Moscow Times, now subject to restrictions on its anti-Russian line. Draw your own conclusions.
DM 2nd January 2026