There was some query about how a lot inventory needs to be positioned within the movies launched by Russia. Moscow has a well-established historical past of attempting to comb miliary embarrassments below the rug, most notably throughout this warfare when the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet was sunk.
Even when its plans seem to work out, the Kremlin generally likes to take care of a shroud of thriller.
It has declared no involvement, for instance, when previous adversaries flip up poisoned in different international locations. And extra not too long ago, when the mercenary chief Yevgeny V. Prigozhin died after his aircraft exploded, President Vladimir V. Putin provided a cryptic eulogy for a onetime ally who had briefly rebelled: He was a “gifted man,” he stated, with a “difficult destiny.”
Nonetheless, Ukraine, too, has made claims throughout the warfare which have turned out to be inaccurate or, at the least, unprovable. After the primary video purporting to point out Admiral Sokolov alive appeared in Russia, Ukrainian officers acknowledged that they may have made a mistake, however maintained that they nonetheless thought he was lifeless.
On Wednesday, Admiral Sokolov — or, at the least, a determine who resembled him — didn’t restrict himself to affairs army. A state-owned newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, printed an article saying that he had handed out an award that morning to the Black Sea Fleet’s soccer staff.
There was proof suggesting that the award ceremony could, actually, have been a restaging of an earlier occasion, presumably to buttress the notion that the admiral was nonetheless alive. He himself, in response to a query, says on the video that the ceremony had been postponed.
Aric Toler contributed reporting.
