"Storm Petrel" Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

• Vladimir Khalip
• 30.10.2025, 11:15

Curious, though, what was flying over Rublevka at night?

Ominous signs appear at night in the skies above Moscow. We're almost used to drones at the end of October. But something unfamiliar and incomprehensible frightens and alarms eyewitnesses. Why would something swift and creepy suddenly appear over the sleepy high-rise buildings? As if the same bolide that once flew over Chelyabinsk and exploded, blowing out windows. But this one didn't seem to qualify for such a role. It flew by, scattering green fire, and as if dropped into the abyss. The witnesses were dumbfounded.

The nighttime drone raids here had already somehow adapted. What can you do, it's war. And this is some kind of strange object. Definitely not Chinese pyrotechnics. And hardly a UFO. So it's military and highly classified. All this would have appeared to the amazed citizens in some industrial zone. There's a lot of stuff out there! Or near an oil depot or a defense plant, but no. They say they saw something similar in Krasnogorsk. And also in Lyubertsy. And somewhere over the Rublevskoye highway. It was something to think about. It was clear to every passerby and passerby: all this will not end well.

And then a suspicious photo went viral on the net. Late evening. Street. Lantern. No pharmacy. But the Kremlin tower and the same wall. And underneath it - a cheap pickup truck with a machine gun. And two men in worn-out camouflage. Standing with their heads back, as if trying to look behind that jagged wall. Is it the very patrol, which had the high honor to repel the air attack on the most sacred object?...

But with the beginning of the last October week the unstoppable flow of the most incredible events came and washed away this heavy impression. Who cares who is guarding whom, if on all TV screens of the country - a secret meeting somewhere in the bowels of the Ministry of Defense. Generals and other high-ranking officials, as if they had just come from the front line. And with them - the Commander-in-Chief. Like everyone else, in camouflage. Only without the epaulettes. Obviously, all with some exciting news. The war is over...

The naive were not so lucky. It turned out that they were waiting for the wrong person. It's just that the leader has a big event. The country has finally acquired a weapon, the very one it's been dreaming of. A real, pure Wunderwaffe. Something similar in creativity and unpredictability was awaited painfully in a famous bunker in the spring of the forty-fifth year. But they didn't wait. And hoped in vain. It is not with the happiness of a sergeant to count on an impossible miracle.

But if the leader is in camouflage and, accordingly, in the rank, which he has not yet decided to assign himself, it is a different matter. There's a reason why this sudden outing with the generals followed Trump's reckless statement about "Tomahawks." And so in the hands of General Gerasimov a crumpled piece of paper, checking against which he announces the sensation. On October 21, at the strategic test site, a cruise missile with a nuclear propulsion system was successfully tested. The missile flew 14 thousand kilometers and was in the air for 15 hours. Is this not stunning news? In short, Russia is again ahead of the world. And not only in the field of ballet.

The shocked world, according to the General Staff's plan, had to take a break and gradually come to its senses. So that in the ensuing global silence, the leader's rasping voice would murmur: "There are no analogs!" Everything was going clearly according to the Kremlin's plan. It even seemed that now they in the West would come to their senses and rush towards the Kremlin.

But, as always happens in moments of great accomplishments, the servants let them down. It's a well-known fact - they wanted what was best. And it turned out that the Internet is already full of all kinds of advertising. Propaganda has done its best. There is even footage, as if filmed in a secret laboratory, where the outstanding scientists and engineers of this incomprehensible country are gathered. Some unknown characha of Putin's times.

In the frame there are two rockets at right angles to each other. They are covered with a tarpaulin so that the enemy does not take away the strictly guarded secrets. And only the head end of these ominous missiles, painted red, is exposed. Two people depict the process of finalization of the formidable product of the restless military industry. Both are in white coats and caps. One of them took some cable in his hands. But he doesn't know what to do with it. The other one is easier. He's shyly huddled somewhere near a shelf and seems to be writing something. Aren't these the sentries from the pickup truck who guarded the Kremlin so diligently under a lantern?

According to all appearances, the footage made no impression. And the formidable bunker sit-downs with the participation of the leader and the sensational report about the testing of a "doomsday missile" turned out to be a blank shot. The expected "movement" in the world did not occur. The regime remained on the sidelines as it was. Even propagandists of official channels rambled the news without any enthusiasm.

Only in the hawthorn thickets, where the inglorious "Oreshnik" is languishing, some dull stirring was noticed. And one of the experts, suggesting that some skillful people could even assemble something similar according to the drawings of the fifties with separate inclusions of new ideas, asked a simple question. And how would they put it all into production?

I wonder what was flying over Rublevka at night?

Vladimir Khalip, specially for Charter97.org.