Security services foil plot to kill Putin after election
Source: Agencies |
February 28, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
RUSSIAN and Ukrainian security services have foiled a plot to assassinate Vladimir Putin after next week's presidential election, Ukraine's SBU counter-intelligence agency said yesterday.
Russian Channel One television said Ukrainian special services in the Black Sea port of Odessa had held two men linked to a rebel group seeking an Islamist state in Russia's North Caucasus.
"I can officially confirm that they were preparing an attempt on Putin," said Marina Ostapenko, a spokeswoman for the SBU.
Ostapenko said two men were under arrest. One was seized in Odessa after being wounded in an explosion at an apartment in the city on January 4 which also killed another alleged plotter.
The second man, who was on an international wanted list, was arrested a month later after initially escaping, she said.
"We found him in an apartment and detained him without a single shot being fired on February 4," she said.
Channel One said the suspects, acting on instructions from Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, were preparing to kill Putin in Moscow immediately after Sunday's election.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the report to the ITAR-Tass news agency, but refused to comment further.
Channel One said two of the alleged members of the group arrived in Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey with instructions from Umarov, the top military leader for the Chechen rebels. One of them, a Chechen, was killed during the accidental explosion in Odessa and another one, Kazakhstan's citizen Ilya Pyanzin, was wounded in the blast and arrested.
Pyanzin led the investigators to their liaison in Odessa, Adam Osmayev, a Chechen who previously had lived in London, the report said.
The TV station showed footage of Osmayev's arrest in Odessa with black-clad special troops bursting in and a half-naked, bloodied Osmayev on his knees, his head bowed down.
Speaking to Channel One from custody in Ukraine, Osmayev described the group's mission: "Our goal was to go to Moscow and try to kill Prime Minister Putin ... Our deadline was after the Russian presidential election."
Both of Osmayev's hands were bandaged, and his face was covered in green dots from an antiseptic used to treat his cuts.
He said he wouldn't have become a suicide bomber, but another Chechen who was killed in the accidental explosion might have agreed.
Osmayev added that they considered using powerful military mines that would make a suicide mission unnecessary.
Channel One said Osmayev had led the investigators to a cache of explosives near a Moscow avenue that Putin uses to travel between his office and a suburban residence.
A Russian security officer told the station that the suspects also had videos of Putin's convoy taken from different angles to prepare for the attack.
Pyanzin also was shown saying that they were to sabotage economic facilities and then try to kill Putin.
Umarov had claimed responsibility for a January 2011 suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, which killed 37 people and injured more than 180, warning that many more such attacks would follow if Russia did not allow the Caucasus to become an independent Islamic state governed by Sharia law.
Umarov has also claimed responsibility for an array of other terror attacks in the past, including the double suicide bombing of the Moscow subway system in March 2010 that killed 40 people.
Russian Channel One television said Ukrainian special services in the Black Sea port of Odessa had held two men linked to a rebel group seeking an Islamist state in Russia's North Caucasus.
"I can officially confirm that they were preparing an attempt on Putin," said Marina Ostapenko, a spokeswoman for the SBU.
Ostapenko said two men were under arrest. One was seized in Odessa after being wounded in an explosion at an apartment in the city on January 4 which also killed another alleged plotter.
The second man, who was on an international wanted list, was arrested a month later after initially escaping, she said.
"We found him in an apartment and detained him without a single shot being fired on February 4," she said.
Channel One said the suspects, acting on instructions from Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, were preparing to kill Putin in Moscow immediately after Sunday's election.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the report to the ITAR-Tass news agency, but refused to comment further.
Channel One said two of the alleged members of the group arrived in Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey with instructions from Umarov, the top military leader for the Chechen rebels. One of them, a Chechen, was killed during the accidental explosion in Odessa and another one, Kazakhstan's citizen Ilya Pyanzin, was wounded in the blast and arrested.
Pyanzin led the investigators to their liaison in Odessa, Adam Osmayev, a Chechen who previously had lived in London, the report said.
The TV station showed footage of Osmayev's arrest in Odessa with black-clad special troops bursting in and a half-naked, bloodied Osmayev on his knees, his head bowed down.
Speaking to Channel One from custody in Ukraine, Osmayev described the group's mission: "Our goal was to go to Moscow and try to kill Prime Minister Putin ... Our deadline was after the Russian presidential election."
Both of Osmayev's hands were bandaged, and his face was covered in green dots from an antiseptic used to treat his cuts.
He said he wouldn't have become a suicide bomber, but another Chechen who was killed in the accidental explosion might have agreed.
Osmayev added that they considered using powerful military mines that would make a suicide mission unnecessary.
Channel One said Osmayev had led the investigators to a cache of explosives near a Moscow avenue that Putin uses to travel between his office and a suburban residence.
A Russian security officer told the station that the suspects also had videos of Putin's convoy taken from different angles to prepare for the attack.
Pyanzin also was shown saying that they were to sabotage economic facilities and then try to kill Putin.
Umarov had claimed responsibility for a January 2011 suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, which killed 37 people and injured more than 180, warning that many more such attacks would follow if Russia did not allow the Caucasus to become an independent Islamic state governed by Sharia law.
Umarov has also claimed responsibility for an array of other terror attacks in the past, including the double suicide bombing of the Moscow subway system in March 2010 that killed 40 people.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
