Follow up to "Carpet-Droning"

By Marat Khairullin

Translator’s Note: This article is a follow-up to the article “Carpet-Droning,” which explores the phenomenon of bloggers that shall not be named who have made doomerism into a brand. To explain, many “pro-Russian” channels, which are often cited in Western resources, complain about the Russian MOD as well as the state of the Special Military Operation in order to draw attention to themselves through baiting controversy. Marat Khairullin has garnered the ire of them and their followers by pointing out the personal interests that cause them to do this, and he also provides analysis that runs counter to their narratives.

For more on this subject, read this well written post: On Doomers

Marat Khairullin:

As I said, it is enough to wait for a while, and it will immediately become clear from where the wind is blowing, but let's start from the very beginning, so as not to miss important details, because this story is very interesting in terms of understanding what is happening today.

Suddenly, a number of sources in Telegram started publishing the same information. Moreover, an experienced person who has lived through more than one PR war will immediately notice that some publications are clearly commercial in nature. That is, some posted certain information on channels with large numbers of subscribers for money.

The question of why one would spend money on additional promotion of information when there are famous bloggers with Ukrainian roots (that will do it anyway) is interesting.

Bloggers with Ukrainian roots have been featured often. This is also important because this is a fixation on a certain kind of people. A little lower, you will understand what this “kind” is. Even one Russian military correspondent (Filatov) was exposed, who, from my point of view, having lost his sense of personal dignity, switched to direct insults.

We will deal with this separately; we are currently collecting relevant material to translate the situation within the framework of the law.
In addition to the information attack in Telegram, there were also calls on messaging applications that can be considered attempts to threaten me. Are some people trying to show that they are ready to move from words to actions? This, by the way, can be regarded as an indirect threat to the inviolability of the individual.

And what was the catalyst of such a reaction? A simple statement that our troops have a total advantage in drones in the Kursk direction! Note that the opponents did not even bother to reasonably prove the opposite point of view. Unless, of course, we count the thesis about the fundraisings that are being carried out, as obvious as a red thread that there must be problems with adequate supplies. They say, "the guys on the front lines ask us to buy drones and components, so there is no advantage, Khairullin is lying!" They offer nothing more or less than this. This is the most important thing in this story.

Now, can we actually assess in practice whether we have an advantage in drones on the battlefield or not? That's right, there is no direct way. We can only learn by indirect signs. For example, let's take the report of the Russian Ministry of Defense: "since the beginning of the operation in the Kursk region, our troops have destroyed 537 armored vehicles of the enemy." As evidence, they use videos from our drones.

Where are the numbers from the Ukrainian side? After all, if the Ukies have a solid advantage in drones, would they really miss the opportunity to brag about such victories publicly? This is especially true considering the Ukies' love for the media. Where are the numbers? There aren't any, the Ukies don't keep detailed statistics at all.

Our Ministry of Defense writes: "69 armored personnel carriers destroyed," and attaches corresponding pictures, or "62 artillery pieces," and attaches more pictures. If the Defense Ministry's figures are not enough, you can pay attention to interesting monitoring projects on the Internet that monitor the number of videos from both sides ( https://t.me/militarysummary is one of them, very technological guys from Belarus). Judging by their reports, even based on real video recordings, the advantage in drones is generally on our side.

The Ukrops, I emphasize once again, despite all their focus on PR of the war, have nothing even close to this in terms of clear and understandable statistics.

And now, my dears, pay attention. I am already writing a second article to substantiate my point of view, and as best I can, I argue it, I cite figures and data. In general, I am trying with all my might to move the discussion into a constructive direction.

My opponents, without substantiating anything, without providing any objective data, simply, I beg your pardon, continue to bark, like some kind of street alcoholic who only knows how to call names.

This is not a methodology, especially for those who have declared themselves the main source of "burning truth." Emotions cannot be weighed and counted. Numbers, gentlemen, where are your numbers!?

Therefore, I believe that the openly boorish reaction of these individuals indicates that the objective state of affairs is not the most important thing for them.

Then what exactly is it that worries them so much? Why did they start itching all over? Why did they attack one humble journalist who is trying, as best he can, to support the fighting spirit of our guys and not allow society to panic unnecessarily?

As I have already indicated above, all these bloggers with Ukrainian roots literally hammer into the heads of their subscribers the idea: there is no advantage, because we are holding fundraisers and sending drones to the front. This means they are needed there. And if our people are asking for money for handicraft production, then this is the only way they can save themselves.

Indeed, on the front lines, and I also spoke about this, a whole industry of handicraft production has grown. Both ours and the enemy's. The Ukrops have succeeded quite a bit in the garage production of combat drones. Just like us, but there is a difference in the long-term approach to the situation.

From our state's point of view, drone production is, in any case, mass production of weapons. Giving it to private individuals is the wrong decision. It can lead to big problems in the long term. The Ukrops, if anything remains of their state in the future, will sooner or later get hit in the head by their own garage drones.

They have regular incidents with explosions, for example, including many where a merry fellow throws a grenade in a public place. He brought a grenade or a pistol from the front, didn't like something, and threw it or shot it at others. These are the consequences of the uncontrolled distribution of weapons.

The same will happen with drones because a drone is also a weapon, and its production and distribution must be strictly controlled. Our authorities care about their people, about the internal stability of the state, and they will certainly take, and they are already taking, control of the production and trade of weapons and drones. Now, in several regions at once, the construction of huge factories for the production of FPVs and other drones is being completed, which will later replace handicraft production.

This is exactly the same process as with the PMCs. While they were needed, they were overlooked, but as soon as they started organizing rebellions, they were quickly closed down. This is what the fight is for now, and this is why all these bloggers with predominantly Ukrainian roots have attacked me. They fight for financial flows.

If this is clear, then there is one more question. The information attack has all the signs of being coordinated and organized. If so, there must be a center that specifically came up with it and paid for the expenses. Among those who unequivocally supported this, as I believe, clearly anti-state campaign, was former deputy of the Ukrainian Rada Oleg Tsarev (analogous to our State Duma). Knowing the background of the scandal, it is worth asking the question, why is a well-known politician suddenly involved in such stories? What is his interest? This, I beg your pardon, is not some narrow-minded blogger; he should understand why it is necessary to place the home-made production of drones under state control. Accordingly, either this person completely lacks state thinking, or he openly defends his own, as I think, mercantile interests in this way.

From my personal point of view, in both cases, such a person has no place in the State Duma - he is not a statesman. At least, certainly not in the United Russia faction. There is such a point of view that Oleg Tsarev is very eager to get there and is making a lot of efforts to achieve this.

Here is another small touch to the portrait. There is such a point of view that it was Oleg Tsarev who helped that very blogger with Ukrainian roots at the initial stage. Now, he actively uses his services. I don’t know how much truth there is in this, but in today’s context, this point of view fits very well.

Such stories are really good from the point of view of bringing interested parties to light. Two days have passed, and now we can draw quite reasonable conclusions. Who, for what, for how much, why? Does some abstract deputy of the State Duma really think that if a simple journalist with a small number of subscribers laid everything out on the shelves, then our special services will not be able to put two and two together?

I would like to emphasize that we are actually talking about state interests, and the attack in this case was not on me, but, as many have correctly noted, on state authorities. This is an attempt to influence their decisions through the persecution of a specific journalist. After the famous incursion near Kursk, it became dangerous to directly attack the Ministry of Defense, so now they are trying to approach it in this way.