Russia Accuses Ukraine of Drone Strike Targeting Putin

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a drone attack on the Kremlin, mafia arrests in Italy, and Brazil’s latest Bolsonaro investigation.

Moscow is accusing Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin in a foiled drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday. Russian security forces struck down the two drones; Putin was not in the fortified complex at the time, according to Russian state media, and the presidential administration said no casualties or serious property damage occurred. Footage verified by the New York Times shows one of the drones exploding over the Kremlin Senate, where the president’s executive office is located. Russia called the incident “a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president’s life” and said Moscow “reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit.”

Kyiv has denied involvement. “We don’t attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference in Helsinki. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Zelensky advisor, made a similar statement, adding that such an attack “would allow Russia to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, civilians, and infrastructure. Why would we need this? Where is the logic in that?” Podolyak suggested the incident was a move by Moscow “to prepare the information background for a large-scale terrorist attack in Ukraine.”

U.S. officials said “whatever happened there was no advanced warning” but that U.S. government analysts were now poring over intelligence, including intercepts and satellite imagery, for more information about the incident. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he couldn’t confirm any of the reports so far. “We simply don’t know,” he said, but he added, “I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.”

Drones have been used throughout Russia’s war in Ukraine by both sides of the conflict. In the last few days alone, alleged Ukrainian drone attacks have targeted key Russian infrastructure. On Saturday, an alleged Ukrainian drone set fire to a Russian fuel storage facility in Sevastopol. And on Wednesday, officials in the Russian city of Krasnodar blamed Ukraine for a drone strike at a nearby fuel depot that helps link Crimea to the Russian mainland. Russia has launched a barrage of Iranian-made drones strikes at Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. In just the first two days of 2023, more than 80 Iranian-made drones launched by the Russian military were shot down over Ukraine, FP’s Robbie Gramer and Amy Mackinnon reported.

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The not-so-untouchables. Police across Europe and Latin America cracked down on an international drug trafficking ring run by the ’Ndrangheta, one of Italy’s most powerful mafias, on Wednesday. Law enforcement officers from Italy, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, and Panama, among other nations, took part in the raid, arresting around 150 people and seizing roughly 23 tons of cocaine—worth almost $2.8 billion. According to investigators, the ’Ndrangheta also helped launder money and traffic weapons from Pakistan to South America.

Top ’Ndrangheta boss Pasquale Bonavota, considered one of Italy’s most dangerous criminals, was also arrested last Thursday after being on the run since 2018 for homicide charges. His arrest came only months after Italian authorities apprehended Matteo Messina Denaro, head of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia. However, despite Italy’s recent successes in clamping down on mob networks, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party has been criticized for considering reforms that would make it more difficult to investigate organized crime, journalist Michele Barbero reported in Foreign Policy.

Vax fraud? Police in Brasília raided the home of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday and confiscated his phone as part of an investigation into his COVID-19 vaccination records. Investigators allege that Bolsonaro—a notorious COVID-19 skeptic who said he would not get the jab and once even suggested that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine could turn people into crocodiles—as well as numerous people in his inner circle may have falsified their COVID-19 vaccination papers so they could enter the United States without undergoing mandatory immunization requirements. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing, including accusations of forgery, and says he has not been vaccinated.

This isn’t Bolsonaro’s first time in the hot seat. The far-right former leader is the subject of eight investigations, according to Brazilian newspaper O Globo. These include allegations of spreading misinformation online about electronic voting machines, leaking classified intelligence, accepting a jeweled necklace from Saudi Arabia without declaring it to customs authorities, and inciting the Jan. 8 capitol riot in Brasília, where his supporters attempted to overthrow the government following Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election.

Climate catastrophe. Heavy flooding killed at least 129 people in Rwanda and six people in Uganda on Wednesday. Intense rain has hit Rwanda for weeks, culminating in destroyed homes, fields, and roadways. Authorities warn of mudslides in Rwanda’s northern and western provinces, and local officials predict that the death toll will likely rise.

Rwanda’s weather authorities have attributed the increased rainfall the country has seen in recent years to climate change, which has taken a devastating toll on the continent. The Horn of Africa has suffered one of the worst droughts in decades. And this year, Cyclone Freddy killed hundreds of people in Malawi and Mozambique as well as left tens of thousands of people homeless.

As Russia struggles to combat Western sanctions, Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to a low not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse. Cullen Hendrix, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, analyzed data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and found that while the war in Ukraine and subsequent sanctions have thrust Russia’s lagging arms exports into the spotlight, the problems in the country’s arms industry had been accumulating for almost a decade.

After Japan faced a string of Pokémon card robberies, one retailer is taking security into its own hands. Hareruya 2, a popular store in Tokyo, announced it will dedicate a portion of its store just for middle school-age children and younger. Parents, guardians, and adult Pokémon enthusiasts will no longer be able to purchase the classic cards—and, yes, the store will be checking IDs.