A technical publicity stunt:
IF their papers say they were still in Russia-—Then Putin can claim they were NEVER in Ukraine.
Reminds me of John Kerry: “I remember Christmas of 1968, sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and the president of the United States telling the American people I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared — seared — in me.”
Former swift boat captain John O'Neill: “John Kerry was never ordered into Cambodia by anyone and would have been court-martialed had he gone there”