BBC News Online: World: Europe

Putin 'targeted' by assassination plot

The head of Ukraine's secret service has said that a plot to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin has been foiled.

Mr Putin is said to have been targeted during a summit meeting of the former Soviet states, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), held in Yalta on the Black Sea last month.

News of the plot was first made public on Friday, but only now has the target been revealed.

In an interview with the Interfax news agency, the head of Ukraine's secret service, Leonid Derkach, said that President Putin had potentially been in the firing line.

He said that Ukraine had been informed by several foreign intelligence services of a plot to kill the Russian leader during the CIS summit in Crimea.

Tip-off

Later, a spokesman for the Russian President's security service said that Russia had been the source of the information.

President Putin was one of nine heads of former Soviet republics attending the meeting.

Several of the others had previously been targeted by assassins.

As a result of the tip-off, four Chechens and several other Middle Eastern citizens were arrested and expelled from Crimea.