February 24, 2017

February 27, 2012

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Five years ago, on February 27, 2012, security forces in Russia and Ukraine announced that they had thwarted a plot to assassinate Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Russian state-run television Channel 1 alleged that the plot was to be carried out shortly after Russia’s presidential election on March 4.

In the report, separate footage showed two alleged plotters saying they were ordered by North Caucasus insurgent commander Doku Umarov to kill Mr. Putin. The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed law enforcement official as saying the plot was uncovered after Ukrainian intelligence agents detained two Russian citizens in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa early in February in connection with an accidental bomb blast in the city in January.

One of the videos, provided by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), showed suspect Illya Pyanzin, a 28-year-old Kazakh citizen, who had traveled to Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates with a Russian national, an accomplice who was later killed in the accidental bomb blast.

Both of the suspects named a third accomplice, Adam Osmayev, an alleged terrorist trainer who had been on international wanted lists since 2007. Mr. Osmayev, who is an ethnic Chechen, was detained by a Ukrainian Alfa special forces unit and admitted that he had been instructed to train the other two men. Mr. Osmayev said another accomplice, Ruslan Madayev, was also trained to launch a suicide attack if the planned anti-tank mines had failed.

Channel 1’s report claimed that the men had confessed to receiving orders from Mr. Umarov, who topped Russia’s most-wanted list for his role in a number of terrorist attacks.

In Moscow, The Washington Post reported disbelief in the news of the assassination plot, with leaders such as Russian ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirnovsky and Communist Gennady Zhuganov calling it a “hoax” and a “trick that stinks.” The timing of the plot was seen by opposition candidate Sergei Mironov as “no mere coincidence.”

Source: “Alleged plot to kill Putin foiled,” RFE/RL Russian Service, The Ukrainian Weekly, March 4, 2012.

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