Actually, <cite> is reserved for citation of a work, not for author attribution. So it would either mean <footer> or plain text.
I advocate to interpret a single line of plain text (and nothing else) following a figure worthy element (image, table, code block, blockquote, you name it) that starts a paragraph, to mean that we intend to present a figure with a caption, or a blockquote with a footer.
I think the context beats adhoc syntax.