Last update: May 03, 2023, 7:03 PM HST
An assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin took place in May 2022. (Image: Reuters)
Moscow alleged that Ukraine attacked Putin’s residence in the fortified Kremlin citadel with drones, but was disabled by electronic defenses
In one of the most serious accusations against Ukraine since the military operation began last year, the Kremlin claimed on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had survived an assassination attempt by Kiev.
Moscow alleged that Ukraine attacked Putin’s residence in the Kremlin’s fortified citadel with drones, but was disabled by electronic defenses.
Although there was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities, this is not the first time that Moscow has reported assassination attempts against Putin.
If reports are to be believed, the Russian president has so far survived five assassination attempts, excluding the recent one alleged by Ukraine. Here is a brief timeline:
2022
The latest attempt was reported by the media in May last year when Ukrainian defense intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov revealed that an ‘unsuccessful attempt’ to assassinate the Russian president had been made at the start of the war Russian-Ukrainian. The report was first published by The Sun.
“Putin was attacked. He was even attacked in the line, as they say, representatives of the Caucasus not so long ago. This is non-public information. An unsuccessful attempt, but it happened… It was about two months ago,” said Kyrylo Budanov.
2012
Before that, another assassination attempt on President Putin took place in 2012. Russian special forces arrested a Chechen rebel – Adam Osmayev – who confessed to planning the assassination of Vladimir Putin.
“Our goal was to go to Moscow and try to kill Prime Minister Putin. Our deadline was after the Russian presidential election,” he said afterwards, quoted by the media.
2023
According to the Sunday Times report, a British police anti-terrorist squad planned to kill Vladimir Putin in October 2003. The report claimed that two men suspected of being assassins had been arrested. One of them was a former Russian secret service hitman.
2002
Another attempt to kill Vladimir Putin took place during his visit to Azerbaijan. At the time, an Iraqi man was being held for plotting to kill the Russian leader and he was suspected of having links to Afghanistan and Chechen rebel forces. The man and his alleged accomplice were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
2002
In November 2002, Russian authorities learned of a plan to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. According to reports, the assassins were targeting his car. It was then claimed that a group of people disguised as repairmen placed a bomb on the road the Russian leader was to take.
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