Putin Informed Of Assassination Plot Against Him (Update2)
By Lucian Kim and Ladane Nasseri
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has been told of a plot to assassinate him during a scheduled visit to Iran this week.
“The president has been informed of the report from the special services that an assassination was being prepared in Tehran,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told Bloomberg News in the lobby of a Tehran hotel today. “We’re still waiting for information from aides accompanying the president,” Peskov said.
Putin, 55, is scheduled to arrive in Tehran tomorrow to attend a summit of the five Caspian Sea nations on Oct. 16. He is currently in Germany for a summit with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Peskov said plans for Putin’s Iranian visit hadn’t been altered. “There are no changes for the advance group. We’re continuing our preparations for the visit,” he said.
Reports of the plot are “totally wrong” and “completely baseless and fit within the psychological activities of the enemies of Iranian-Russian friendship,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in a telephone interview.
Putin may face an assassination attempt by suicide terrorists while in Iran, Interfax news service reported earlier today, citing an unidentified individual in the Russian intelligence services.
The information about the plot came from “various sources” outside Russia, Interfax said, citing the unidentified individual.
`Many Extremist Organizations’
“This information is not a revelation for me,” said Gennady Gudkov, a member of the lower house of parliament’s Security Committee, in an interview with the state-run Vesti-24 television channel.
“Unfortunately there are many extremist organizations in the world today that want to settle scores with the Russian president, and there are probably such organizations in Tehran, which lately, unfortunately, has been a bastion for radical Islamic groups.”
Ukrainian intelligence services said they thwarted an attempt on Putin’s life at a summit of former Soviet Republics at Yalta in Ukraine in 2000, according to a report on the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Web site on Sept. 12, 2000.
The Associated Press reported in October 2001 that Azerbaijan authorities said they had broken a plot to try to kill Putin during a visit in January of that year.
Putin, whose approval rating is above 80 percent in polls, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third presidential term in elections in March next year. He is widely expected by analysts to play an influential role in Russian politics after he steps down. He said on Oct. 1 that he may consider becoming Prime Minister.
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And this would be a bad thing?
October 14th, 2007 at 1:41 pmSounds like old USSR-style BS to me. An attempt by Iran to endear themselves to a fellow tyrant perhaps?
October 14th, 2007 at 2:17 pmPutin needs to sit back and relax with a hot, steaming cup of Polonium.
October 14th, 2007 at 4:02 pmWell, where there was one, there might be more — that they don’t know about and therefore could yet succeed!
October 14th, 2007 at 11:14 pmin any case it’s not one of the mullahcraty sympathizers’ objectives
October 15th, 2007 at 12:55 am