http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL15587064
Russia's Putin emerges from Iran plot 'like a hero'
By Conor Sweeney
MOSCOW, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Commentators were both amused and intrigued
at the heroic light thrown on Russian President Vladimir Putin on
Monday when he defied what he said were security service warnings of a
plot to kill him in Iran.
"I don't known if it's true or not true, but it makes him look like a
hero, if he goes there. It makes him look like Jean-Claude Van Damme,
or Steven Seagal - it's a drama," said veteran Russian broadcaster
Sergey Dorenko told Reuters.
Putin, who was photographed earlier this summer showing off his
muscular torso while on a hunting trip to Siberia, confirmed he would
travel to Tehran after a summit in Germany, although Kremlin officials
had said plans for his visit were in doubt.
The flurry of speculation followed a Russian news agency report
published on Sunday, quoting a single unnamed security source, that
plotters were planning to assassinate Putin in Tehran this week. The
dramatic tale, since confirmed by Kremlin officials, has dominated the
country's media.
Unlike his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, with his booming voice,
theatrical manner and shock of white hair, the current Russian
President needs all the help he can get to make him colourful, said
Dorenko.
"This is a kind of manifestation of quiet courage, it's like 'I must
go'. It's not like Yeltsin, who was already a character when he came
out on stage," he said.
The plot reports come shortly before Duma elections this December and
Putin's scheduled departure from office next March. They come at a
time of speculation on how the president, hugely popular at home, will
maintain some grasp on power in Russia.
KREMLIN STRUGGLE
"The impact is he's a hero and not afraid of a possible attack on him
- so he's going," Dorenko said.
Internal Kremlin intrigue, and no terrorist threat, were the real
reason for the story, said Nikolai Zlobin, the director of the Russian
and Eurasia Project at the World Security Institute in Washington.
"I think this is nothing to do with Iran and nothing to do with
terrorism. I think this is an example of the struggle inside Putin's
administration," he said from Moscow, where he has been following the
news reports closely.
"Putin is the target of the story, not the target of a plot. I think
some groups in the Russian elite are trying to show Putin that he has
to be more careful, more balanced," he said.
Zlobin says they want Putin to recognise the destabilising affect they
believe could result from his departure as Russia's President and
wanted to suggest how vulnerable the country could become, without him
at the helm. Life without Putin.
These groups, Zlobin said, would not be regarded amongst the liberals
inside the administration and want Putin to feel very responsible
ahead of the elections.
Another analyst felt there were some real details backing up the
allegations, even if they were being manipulated to suit a domestic
political agenda.
"I think that there is something behind this information, like some
real facts, but nobody knows exactly for sure," said political
commentator Georgy Bovt.
"I think that information of this type would have never been reported
by news agencies without the permission of the President's press
office," he said.
"Why did they agree on making it public? I don't know, but there is
some intrigue about how it was made public," he said.
Putin's visit to Iran is the first by a Kremlin leader since Josef
Stalin went in 1943. Mystery around the "assassination plot" was
reminiscent of the coded, enigmatic world of the old Soviet Union;
'orderly' days oft drawn on by Putin in his drive to centralise power
and end the chaos of the Yeltsin era.
Tehran dismissed the report as baseless, calling it "psychological
warfare" by Tehran's enemies -- an apparent reference to Western
countries pushing Russia to back stronger sanctions against Iran over
a nuclear programme they believe could spawn atomic weapons.
Russian television channels said previous plots to kill Putin had been
foiled in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2001 and in St Petersburg in 2000.
Russian secret services did receive intelligence about a plot against
Putin, the country's three main news agencies reported on Monday,
quoting an unnamed security service official.
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