Institute for Study of War about reasons for deployment of air defense in Moscow

Air Defense Systems in Moscow are located to prepare society for a protracted war, writes the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its daily report.

Over the past week, many photos and videos have appeared in Russian social networks, from which it follows that air defense systems were installed on the roofs of some buildings in Moscow. The press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on these messages, and the member of the State Duma Committee Yevgeny Lebedev suggested that the photo is the result of the installation.

However, as ISW notes, some Russian military bloggers reacted to the publication of air defense photographs benevolently. They liked that the inhabitants of Moscow will finally understand that “there is a heavy war.”

The Kremlin probably placed air defense systems in Moscow for the sake of publishing these “provocative” images, experts believe. Thus, Russians are trying to demonstrate the immediate danger that war in Ukraine carries for them.

It is unlikely that the Kremlin believes in the threat of Moscow from the Ukrainian army, most likely this is a game for showing to prepare the information space within Russia for a protracted war and further victims.

These actions can also be part of a new information operation designed to put a war in Ukraine in the context of the Russian narrative about the Great Patriotic War.