Ukraine confirms prevention of attempt on Putin

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has confirmed that jointly with Russian special services they had disrupted plans of terrorists to prepare an attempt on Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Let us remind you that on February 4, in central Odessa, the SSU conducted a special operation and detained brothers Adam and Aslanbek Osmaev, natives of Northern Caucasian, who had been put on the international search list by the Russia's Federal Security Bureau (FSB) on suspicion of preparing terror acts. Today, the Russian TV Channel One has reported that Russian and Ukrainian security services had prevented an attempt on Vladimir Putin, arguing that the detainees in Odessa had received instructions from people of Dokku Umarov, the leader of the so-called "Imarat Kavkaz", banned in Russia. According to the investigation, with the attempt in mind, they had carefully studied the routes of Putin's motorcade and were ready to use military-grade mines.

According to investigators, the terrorists were hiding from the FSB and secretly arrived in Ukraine. In Odessa, in a rented flat they were manufacturing explosives, which triggered an occasional explosion on January 4 and subsequent fire. On that day, one of their accomplices Ruslan Madaev was killed, and another one, a citizen of Kazakhstan's Ilya Pyanzin, was hospitalized with burns into the intensive care unit. Then, he gave evidences about preparation of terror acts in the Russian territory. Adam Osmaev, although wounded by the explosion, managed to escape, and he and his brother Aslanbek was detained only on February 4.

"The terrorists detained in early February in Odessa terrorists were preparing an assassination attempt. I can confirm this information," said Marina Ostapenko, the head of the press centre of the SSU.

As noted by the SSU in Kyiv, they were preparing a press release about the joint operation of Russian and Ukrainian special services, the ITAR-TASS reports.

Preparation of an attempt on the incumbent prime minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin is an attempt to destabilize the country on the eve of the election, said Nikolai Kovalyov, an MP from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party and former head of the FSB.

That is, according to his story, the mass protests that have swept across Russia after the parliamentary elections make Umarov happy, according to his own words. "However, he is not happy with the election of the president and the Russians' choice in favour of stability. This is the reason for his attempts to answer with terror acts and destabilize the situation in the country," said Mr Kovalyov.

In the opinion of Dmitry Oreshkin, a political analyst and a member of the Presidential Council for Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, the information about prevention by special services of an attempt on Vladimir Putin is a mechanism of affecting the electorate in order to improve Putin's ranking at the election; a proof is in "a surprising timeliness" of the respective messages voiced out by federal mass media.

"From my point of view, this is an indication of the fact that real leaders of Vladimir Putin's political structure - people from the FSB - try to use, by force of habit, the mechanisms to mobilize public opinion on the basis of their logic: "Enemies are all around. We have the only strong, efficient and wise national leader, whom they want to liquidate," said Mr Oreshkin on air of the "Echo Moskvy" radio.