Moscow, Feb 28 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has not been affected by a plot to assassinate him, his spokesman said Tuesday.
“It hasn’t affected either the mood or working rhythm of Vladimir Putin,” Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid.
Russian state television said Monday that Ukrainain security services arrested two suspects in the Ukrainian port of Odessa last month over a plot to assassinate the Russian prime minister.
Footage on Russia’s state-run Channel One showed both men admitting to the conspiracy.
They were held after an explosion at an apartment in which another suspect was killed.
The spokesman dismissed as “blasphemous” the media reports that said the assassination attempt was a ploy to boost Putin’s popularity ahead of the March 4 presidential polls.
Moscow security analyst Andrei Soldatov said the plot was just for that reason.
“Putin could profit from this idea to show that he has everything under control and that he is the one we should be grateful to for our security and stability,” Soldatov said.
Putin’s spokesman said the thwarted assassination attempt was orchestrated by Putin’s enemies seeking to “oppose everything he does, namely the stabilisation of the situation in the North Caucasus”.
A TV report said the assassins had been dispatched by Chechen warlord Doku Umarov.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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