Russian agents foiled Putin assassination plot

POLT FOILED: Russian authorities foiled an assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin.

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Moscow: Russian authorities foiled an assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin and his successor Dmitry Medvedev on March 2, the presidential election day, local media has reported.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) foiled a plot to assassinate Putin and nation's president-elect Medvedev in Red Square, local tabloid 'Tvoi Den' claimed in its weekend issue yesterday.

Hours before Putin and Medvedev walked to greet their supporters gathered at an open air concert on St Basil's Slope on the presidential day, a Tajik man Shahvelad Osmanov, 24, was nabbed in a security operation from his rented apartment facing the Red Square, the report said.

The security personnel seized a foreign-made sniper rifle with telescopic site from Osmanov, who confessed that the firearms, also including a Kalashnikov rifle belonged to him, but could not explain why he needed a sniper rifle, it said.

While confirming the arrest of Osmanov and seizure of weapons from him, the FSB, however, denied that the operation was linked to the plot to assassinate Russia's top leadership, ITAR-TASS reported.