Russian secret services are investigating a plot to assassinate Vladimir Putin from ‘within their own ranks’, according to a report.
An informant has claimed on Telegram he heard an ‘agent’ boasting he had been given a ‘task’ to ‘remove’ the dictator.
The ‘agent’ allegedly told the source at a meeting in karaoke club Honey, in Chekhov, near Moscow, a known haunt of security services operatives.
He showed the informant – named as Mikhail Yurchenko, 37, a construction industry entrepreneur – his service ID card during a ‘long heart-to-heart conversation about the war and future life in Russia’.
The informant ‘did not argue and changed the topic’.
He became ‘haunted’ after the karaoke club conversation at the threat to Putin and reported it to police, according to the channel.
‘The special services have been searching for several days for the unknown person who planned to “remove” Putin,’ he wrote on Telegram channel VChK-OGPU.
‘Based on his tip, operatives went to study the situation in the Honey club, where…you can often meet employees of various [secret] departments.’
In June a plot to assassinate Putin by blowing up his motorcade on a bridge in Moscow was foiled by the secret services.
The Federal Protection Service [FSO] was tipped off about a barge suspected to be planting explosives on the floor of the Moscow River, according to Telegram.
The barge was ordered to move ‘due to the movement of motorcades over the bridge’.
Immediately afterwards ‘divers began to examine the bottom of the river’.
In May the Kremlin accused Ukraine of attempting to kill Putin, alleging two drones attacked the president’s residence.
This comes ahead of an expected announcement next month that he will seek a new six-year term in the Kremlin.
Putin told student participants in the International Financial Security Olympiad in Sochi that he had many admirers in Europe who shared his traditional values.
‘I want to defend our friends,’ he said.’
‘We have a lot of friends in Europe. People who believe that traditional values, including the family, have died out.’
‘But there are quite a lot of people in European countries who share our values.
‘That’s why I wouldn’t split everyone. On the contrary, I want to try to unite everyone around our platform.’
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