Alleged plot to kill Putin foiled
Russian State TV says special services foiled an alleged plot planned for next Sunday, following Russia's Presidential election.
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THE Arab Spring has inspired Russians to stand up to Vladimir Putin and sweeping political change is possible if voters reject him at the ballot box in next weekend’s presidential elections, says jailed opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Writing from his prison cell in the far north of Russia, Khodorkovsky says the leadership around Mr Putin is already quietly caving in to demands for more open, democratic politics after the mass protest movement that welled up after questionable elections in early December. He adds that the burgeoning middle class — which will constitute a majority within 10 years — will no longer accept Mr Putin’s ‘‘managed democracy’’ as suitable for governing their country.
Khodorkovsky’s intervention comes as thousands of protesters turned out in Moscow at the weekend wearing white scarves and ribbons and carrying white balloons and flowers, the colour and symbols of the protest movement calling for Mr Putin’s removal from power.
For an hour, they lined the city’s Garden Ring, a circular road that encloses the city centre, and held hands to form a human chain. The protesters were joined by thousands of motorists who honked their horns in support.
‘‘They will continue to demand a real seat at the table in a system of democracy and pluralism and they will not take no for an answer,’’ Khodorkovsky said.
Khodorkovsky said it was clear the Kremlin was scrambling to respond to the protests of the past three months.
‘‘The authorities also responded — quietly — with reform, permitting the registration of new political parties for future Duma elections, and election rather than appointment of regional governors. These steps are capable of changing much in Russia, a catalyst, perhaps unintended, for a more fundamental transformation.’’
Russia says its secret services have thwarted a plot hatched in a Ukrainian port city by men with links to Chechnya to assassinate Mr Putin after next weekend’s presidential election.
State-controlled Channel One television yesterday showed two suspected plotters who it said were detained in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa.
The existence of the plot was confirmed by Mr Putin’s spokesman as well as the Ukrainian Security Service and its Russian counterpart, the Federal Security Service. However, some analysts raised suspicion over the timing.
Channel One showed confessions from two men who said they were acting on the orders of the feared Chechen Islamist militant Doku Umarov.
GUARDIAN, AFP
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