Putin is unprepared for the blowback his assault on Ukraine will bring Russia

Russia is already paying a huge price that will only increase, writes Borzou Daragahi

Putin has slowly turned into a Bond villain caricature of himself (Sputnik/AFP)

The small drones managed to bypass security surrounding the Kremlin, Russia’s most sacred political and religious site, before they were blasted out of the sky during the early morning hours of 3 May.

The Kremlin angrily described the drones as a Ukrainian and Western-backed assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin. It almost definitely was not. It was yet another sign that the fallout from Putin’s disastrous war of imperial conquest was moving closer and closer to the heart of Russian power.

No one should take anything the Russian government says at face value because, well, it’s Russia. The drones did not appear particularly large or sophisticated. Putin, who has over the years slowly turned into a Bond villain caricature of himself, was probably at one of his compounds, bunkers or palaces and nowhere near the fortress-like presidential residence that is the formal seat of Russian power and a major tourist draw.