A TOP Vladimir Putin mouthpiece accidentally exposed the location of an elite Russian drone unit – by streaming a toilet sign.
Blundering chief TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov gave away the secret location of Putin’s most prized drone squad before researchers geolocated it.
Investigators tracked down a top secret drone hub using toilet signs[/caption]
Vladimir Putin with Russia’s top war propaganda mouthpiece Vladimir Solovyov[/caption]
Russian Minister of Defence Andrey Belousov pictured visiting secret Rubicon drone HQ[/caption]
An unblurred toilet sign in the background of a TV report led to the state-of-the-art Rubicon HQ being exposed.
The UAV cache is hidden at Hall D and part of Hall C at the Patriot Exhibition Centre, near Moscow.
The site has been already targeted by Ukrainian drones, and could now be subject to another wave of heavy bombardment.
Solovyov is a well-paid state TV propagandist for Putin and the war.
But his careless blooper revealing toilet signs that point to the top secret storage unit is a huge embarrassment.
Solovyov’s editors forgot to blur the sign above the entrance to the restroom.
And because it features a distinctive design with a specific light board located above it and the word “restroom” in both English and Russian, analysts were able to decipher where the unit was.
Open source images of a spring exhibition showing the exact same toilet signs were used to pinpoint the hall.
Researchers then identified Rubicon HQ as the official house for the drones, a which was named a “centre for advanced unmanned technologies”.
They also unmasked its head Colonel Sergei Budnikov.
Rubicon HQ’s exposure is a massive blow to the Russian military’s credibility.
Putin’s Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, who was behind its development, is also likely to pay for his mistakes.
The centre is involved in development and testing of new drones, operator training, and the deployment of its own units on the front lines.
Local media reports that Russia owes much of the success its success defending the Kursk region to Rubicon HQ.
The centre reportedly emerged around one year ago.
Dramatic footage showed the base being blitzed as plumes of smoke billowed from the site of a precise Ukrainian strike.
Researchers used open source images to track down the base[/caption]
Russia’s secret Rubicon drone unit near Moscow[/caption]
Additionally, the advances made this summer in Donetsk Oblast are also thanks to Rubicon HQ.
Russian operatives have been learning to isolate areas of the battlefield, hunt enemy UAV operators, and cut off logistics.
Earlier this week, the top twisted mouthpiece slammed the Russian army for not blitzing Odessa with missiles during Boris Johnson‘s visit.
Fuming on Rossiya 1 state-funded TV, Solovyov said the Black Sea port city should have been struck while the ex-PM was “hanging out there”.
It comes as Putin’s crumbling war machine has sunken to grotesque new lows – using Nazi-era weapons looted from museums as his battered army runs out of ammo.
Ukraine‘s “Tur” reconnaissance unit revealed it had stumbled across Nazi detonators in a Russian ammunition dump – marked with the swastika and Reichsadler eagle, stamped with the year 1934.
The top secret drone hub was revealed by an accidental error[/caption]
The top secret base was revealed on TV[/caption]
