By Steve Brown

Copyright kyivpost

The independent news site Radio Liberty (RL) published a wide-ranging article dissecting the development of Russia’s drone warfare capabilities since the start of the full-scale invasion on Wednesday, Sept. 17.

Part of the report showed how, after closely examining three poorly censored videos of Moscow’s main “Rubicon” drone base posted online, they identified its location – the Patriot Convention and Exhibition Center located 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Moscow.

The first was a Ministry of Defense video posted on Telegram in October 2024; the second was a February TV report by Moscow’s arch-propagandist Vladimir Solovyov; the third was published on Rubicon’s own Telegram channel in August, to celebrate its first anniversary of its founding in July last year.

Each of the videos had attempted to conceal “give-away” details by blurring or pixelating specific areas of the facility visible in the background. The censoring of Solovyov’s video, in particular, failed to hide everything.

In one shot, a distinctive illuminated restroom sign that periodically switches between Russian and English also appears on promotional videos for the Patriot center. In a second clip, Solovyov and his hosts walk past a paneled column, loudspeakers and other equipment unique to the location.

RL also gained access to footage that had not been broadcast, which included stands holding “patriotic” posters and obstacles used for training first-person video (FPV) drone operators and vehicles frequently associated with Russian frontline drone operations.

Using the Solovyov “clues” as a starting point, items visible in the other two videos, which had been better edited, also revealed features characteristic of Patriot – this included metal floor hatches in an equipment warehouse and camouflage netting that are features of the site’s exhibition halls – one of which the center’s calendar lists as being permanently allocated to the “Directorate of Advanced Interspecies Research and Special Projects.”

RL was able to geolocate parts of the videos, which identified that the vehicles were located in a parking area close to the main exhibition complex and indicated that the Rubicon Center is located in Halls C and D, located in the southern part of the Patriot Exhibition Center.

Rubicon was set up to develop and procure unmanned systems, design battlefield drone tactics, train UAV operators, and deploy its personnel to the front line. It consists of seven separate units employing up to 150 personnel that claim to have increasingly supported Russian forces, including this year’s operations in Kursk and in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

In May, Ukrainian drones targeted the Exhibition Center and a Pantsir air defense system in two separate attacks on the site. According to RL, the strikes were targeted at Rubicon using the information gleaned from Solovyov’s broadcast.