Putin Assassination Attempt Foiled

Telegraph

"Russian secret services have foiled an attack on President Vladimir Putin close to Red Square, it has been claimed.

A man with a sniper rifle and Kalashnikov assault gun was found and detained in a rented apartment overlooking Moscow's St Basil's Cathedral, on March 2, the day of the Presidential election in Russia.

Mr Putin and his president-elect, Dmitry Medvedev, appeared under the cathedral for a late-night pop concert once early results indicated that Mr Medvedev would win a landslide.

The popular Tvoi Den newspaper, which broke the story, claimed that both men could have been killed from the flat which was in the line of sight of a stage where they appeared.

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"For an experienced marksman, both would have been easy targets," stated Tvoi Den."