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Mar 26, 2024

James Brooke: Dictators who live in glass houses should not throw stones

Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. Investigators examine a damaged skyscraper Sunday in the Moskva-Citi business district after a reported drone

Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.

Investigators examine a damaged skyscraper Sunday in the Moskva-Citi business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia.

Moskva-Citi has long provided a juicy target for Ukraine’s drones. Rising two miles west of Red Square, this steel and glass showcase of “the new Russia” constitutes Europe’s largest concentration of skyscrapers. Formally called Moscow International Business Center, this city within a city boasts 16 of Europe’s 25 tallest buildings.

The centerpiece, Federation East Tower, rises 93 stories. High speed elevators whisk visitors a quarter-mile into the sky. From the top, a platform offers commanding views of the East European plain while the Moscow River cuts oxbows through the soft steppe.

In 2006, the buzz and excitement were captured by a breathless New York Times Magazine story headlined “Manhattan on the Moskva.”

“Moscow is booming,” author Brett Forrest wrote. “It’s the biggest city in Europe, with more than 10 million people, and as the cultural and financial capital of the continent’s eastern half, it is striving to live up to its status. Cranes twist across the skyline, great dust clouds billow from countless digs: roughly 80 million square feet of real estate will be built this year.”

But the dream to become “Wall Street on the Moscow River” did not become reality. Foreign investors and financial wizards soon realized that the Moskva-Citi had the hardware — the buildings — but not the software — the rule of law.

Undeterred, Vladimir Putin’s planners filled these glittering cylinders, spirals and spikes with government ministries, state banks, cryptocurrency exchanges and luxury apartments. Today, at any given time, 250,000 Moscow yuppies live and work there, served by two subway lines and a 10-lane access highway. Plans include an express train to Moscow’s busiest airport, Sheremetyevo.

Into this dream world crashed two Ukrainian drones early Sunday morning. Due to the hour, only a security guard was injured. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin downplayed the attack, writing on Telegram: “The facades on two city office towers were slightly damaged.”

But a cellphone video by a woman tracking one drone shows a huge blast with orange flames and dozens of broken windows. The audio contains a massive boom and her wailing voice.

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It was the fourth time that drones hit Moscow this month. The attack on Moskva-Citi was blamed for sending the Russian ruble to a three-week low Monday morning — 92.8 rubles to the dollar.

“They got what they wanted,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat said Sunday on national television. “Something is coming, and loudly,” he warned Russians. “There is no point in talking about peace in the Russian hinterland.”

Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a warning to Moscow’s cubicle mice, the silent middle class who look away while their leader attacks a neighboring country.

“Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases,” said in his regular address to Ukrainians. “And this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.”

In response, Russia fired a ballistic missile Monday at Zelenskyy’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih. The rocket hit an apartment building, injuring 43 people and killing four, including a woman and her 10-year-old daughter.

Lenox native James Brooke has traveled to about 100 countries reporting for The New York Times, Bloomberg and Voice of America. He reported from Russia for eight years and from Ukraine for six years.