Posted on 10/14/2007 8:42:12 PM PDT by Blogger
'Plot to assassinate Putin' in Iran
Vladimir Putin, left, visited Germany on Sunday ahead of a planned trip to Iran [AFP]
The Russian president has been warned of a plot to assassinate him during a planned visit to Iran next week, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.
But Tehran has described as "totally baseless" the report, which said Russian security services had been told suicide bombers and kidnappers were training to kill or capture Vladimir Putin.
"Reports published by some media are totally baseless and are in line with the psychological war launched by enemies who want to harm Iran and Russia's relationship," Mohammad Ali Hosseini, foreign ministry spokesman, said on Sunday.
The Russian president is travelling to Tehran to attend a meeting a summit of the five states that surround the Caspian Sea, and Hosseini said this would go ahead as planned.
Putin is the first Kremlin leader to travel to Iran since Josef Stalin, the former Soviet leader, attended a wartime summit with Winston Churchill, former British prime minister, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, former US president, in 1943.
'Bombers preparing'
The Interfax report said that: "a reliable source in one of the Russian special services, has received information from several sources outside Russia, that during the president of Russia's visit to Tehran an assassination attempt is being plotted.
"It could be some international scheme, perhaps connected with Russia's enemies like the Chechens"
Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor "A number of groups of suicide bombers are preparing for this aim."
The news agency quoted Kremlin sources as saying they had no comment on the report, but that the president had been informed.
Fred Weir, Moscow correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, told Al Jazeera that assassination plots against the Russian leader had previously been discovered in Ukraine and Azerbaijan, both reportedly connected to the separatist movement in Chechnya.
"It could be some international scheme, perhaps connected with Russia's enemies like the Chechens," he said.
"Or it could be some elaborate rumour, in Russia we have this transitional phase, we are not sure if Putin is leaving his job or changing his job next year. All of this sort of thing excites power struggles and rumours are a major weapon in that."
Putin's second term as president ends next year and the constitution prevents him standing for a third consecutive term. He has said he will stand for parliament and could become prime minister.
Nuclear standoff
Putin is expected to meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president during his visit, giving him a chance to attempt to find a peaceful solution to the standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Although Russia has backed two rounds of punitive UN sanctions against Iran, Moscow says engagement is a more effective way of tackling the situation.
It has sold weapons to Iran, in defiance of US concerns, and is building a nuclear power station at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf.
Putin was visiting Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, on Sunday before travelling to the Iranian capital on Monday.
complete lie, the only reason iran has not been take out is due to putnam.
Gotta say, it would be poetic justice, as Vlad has been energetically arming every terrorist he can find as long as the checks clear.
i don’t quite understand, putin is the one that is helping them get nukes, why would they want to kill him?
IMO, Putin is making a colossal mistake. He should be aligning with the west. Instead he seems to be aligning with China and the fickle Islamofascits.
Who does Putin think China and those islamofascists will go after next, if the west is neutered?
We’re not interested in taking Russia over. We could exist in peace with them from here on out. And they have much more in common with the west than they do the east.
Well, Putin better wake up or he’s going to be speaking Mandarin before his lights go out.
Yeah, but they have the right to be pissed about the shoddy air defense equipment he’s been selling them.
That’s surrender monkey propaganda from our own. The Iranian leadership is now thrilled at the hints of increasing military support in the near future from Russia. The constituents with the most say here are still screeching at our politicians to stay out of Iran and to make friends with neo-fascist-commie United Russia Party leaders.
There may be Russians that are allowed to sell military hardware to vehemently anti-American types; yet, the same agents (perhaps even state-sponsored) are also selling the methods to defeat this warfighting technology to America (and Israel, like America, Russia has a lot of Jews).
Thus, Vlad has doubled his profits by selling the same military hardware twice. Once to a belligerant, and twice to his Western cousins and Christian/Jewish brothers.
If I were Putin, I’d stay home. The Iranian president was trained as a suicide soldier as a youth. He’s a figure head with genius for rhetoric. Clerics behind the scene are pulling puppet strings. But that’s not to say that the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t intelligent nor unwilling. He’s quite gifted and skilled...but also suicidal/homicidal. He wants to meet great Western giants and murder them. Russia is part of the Western society, though it’s quite unique from the rest of Europe and America. When the Soviets ruled, there was more than a few drops of blood spilled over places like Afghanistan. And, there’s still a bit of gun play and bombings in other areas where Russia meets Middle East. Historically, the Middle East has constantly been at war with Russia.
If Bush won’t meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then why should Putin? Vlad, please stick to text messaging.
Wow, 10 responses in 26 hours. This topic has aroused massive concern among FReepers. /sarc
The topic was not even open two hours when you responded.
Bullsh*t. He’s their dealer.
Whoops! My bad. Apologies.
If he takes the out....that says one thing
If he doesn't, that says another...
I think he's being given one last chance to pick a side...
This wil be interesting to watch...
Putnam??? that’s not George Putnam, is it?
There just isn't much to say after it's been posted 50 times.
What's more can one say other than- it would be a good thing if he was.
Assassins plot to kill Putin in Iran: Interfax
Yahoo
Posted on 10/14/2007 3:15:22 PM EDT by Sub-Driver
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1911138/posts
Yuri Orlov: "Back then, I didn't sell to Osama Bin Laden. Not because of moral reasons, but because he was always bouncing checks."
No need to apologize. Mistakes happen. :)
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