A plot to kill Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been thwarted less than a week before the Russian presidential election on Sunday, officials said yesterday. Two suspects linked to a Chechen rebel leader were nabbed after an accidental explosion, state TV reported. State television in Russia said that special forces had seized two conspirators in Odessa, southern Ukraine, after an explosion in an apartment in January.
The Chechen alleged ringleader, Adam Osmayev (31) has reportedly confessed to planning the assassination on the orders of Doku Umarov, the emir of the Islamist insurgency against Moscow’s rule in the North Caucasus region.
Osmayev in detention said, “The ultimate aim was to travel to Moscow and try to assassinate Premier Putin.” The plan was exposed after the explosion in Odessa on January 4, which was initially thought to be a domestic gas explosion. However, it transpired to be an accident during the preparation of an explosive device. One of the men, Ruslan Madayev died in the blast but Ukrainian special forces seized a second, Ilya Pyanzin two days later.
Osmayev, who was shown with blotches of green antiseptic covering wounds on his face, was captured separately later. The men had a laptop with several videos of Putin’s cortege travelling through Moscow on it. Osmayev — who had reportedly been on a federal arrest warrant since 2007 — said they planned to use a tank mine to kill Putin rather than a suicide bomber, although Madayev had been prepared to become a martyr. Putin did not comment but his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed the murder plot was real.
There is likely to be speculation that news of the plot — apparently exposed several weeks ago — was deliberately released by Kremlin-controlled media just before the presidential vote, in order to bolster one of Putin’s favourite electoral tactics: suggesting that foreign-backed wreckers are trying to destabilise the motherland.
Osmayev lived for several years in London, which is also home to Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen rebel envoy whom Moscow has tried unsuccessfully to extradite. An FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) operative showed videos of Putin’s cortege found on Osmayev’s computer. “These were in order to understand where the bodyguards sit and how many cars are escorting, from different angles and streets,” he explained. Madayev and Pyanzin, a Kazakh citizen, were said to have flown to Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey “with precise instructions from representatives of Doku Umarov.”
Who is Doku Umarov?
Doku Umarov is Chechnya’s most wanted rebel leader. In January last year, Umarov targeted passengers emerging from British flights at a Moscow airport. A total of 37 died and 180 were injured. His goal is an Islamic state based on Chechnya and run under Sharia law in the tinderbox Caucasus region.
—Agencies