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A plot to assassinate Russian president Vladimir Putin by blowing up his motorcade on a bridge in Moscow was foiled by the secret services, reports say.

The Federal Protection Service [FSO] was tipped off about a barge suspected to be planting explosives on the floor of the Moscow River, according to VChK-OGPU Telegram channel.

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‌The bridge was not named but is on a route used by Putin’s motorcade moving to and from the Kremlin from his out-of-city official residence.

‌Putin yesterday visited the nearby World Trade Centre for a forum called Strong Ideas for New Time by the Russian Agency of Strategic Initiative.

‌Video shows security service vessels evidently combing the river close to Novoarbatsky Bridge.

‌Divers were reported to have been in the murky waters.

‌’The FSO was checking information about the preparation of an assassination attempt on Putin with the help of explosives at the bottom of the Moskva River, laid down from a barge,’ VChK-OGPU said.

‌’A duty officer of the Federal Security Service reported a suspicious barge under the bridge.’

‌The barge was ordered to move ‘due to the movement of motorcades over the bridge’.

‌Immediately afterwards ‘divers began to examine the bottom of the river’.

‌The FSO – which guards Putin and other top Russian officials – also checked the documents of crew on the barge, said the report.

‌The barge was reportedly carrying out repairs on the bridge.

There was no information on whether explosives were found, nor any suggestion as to who might have planned any assassination bid on the Russian dictator.

‌The activity was in the vicinity of the World Trade Centre and the White House headquarters of the Russian government – opposite the former Ukraine Hotel, a Stalin tower now named the Radisson Collection Hotel.

‌Two drone strikes which hit the Kremlin on 3 May were blamed on Ukraine by the Russians.

‌This was portrayed as a bid to ‘assassinate Putin’.

‌In late May, a drone strike came close to Putin’s palatial official residence Novo-Ogaryovo, near Moscow.

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