Putin's might-have-been assassins scared to come to Russia

Ukraine has completed the investigation of the notorious criminal case against Adam Osmayev and Ilya Pyanzin, who allegedly plotted the assassination of Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov (the Chechen President). The investigation materials will soon be handed over to the Ukrainian court. Therefore, Russian security services will have to wait with the extradition of the suspects to Russia. The suspects do not want to go to Russia at all. They were cooperating with Ukrainian law enforcement officers very actively to win their loyalty. However, there is no provision of pre-trial agreement in the Ukrainian legislation.

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Officials with the Security Service of Ukraine said that on July 20, Adam Osmayev of Russia and a citizen of Kazakhstan Ilya Pyanzin started to get acquainted with the materials of their criminal case, The Kommersant Daily wrote. The procedure is not expected to take a long time.  The two suspects pleaded guilty. Moreover, they provided a large portion of the evidence of the case to detectives. Afterwards, the case will be forwarded for consideration on the merits to a court of Odessa.

It was announced on February 27 that special services of Ukraine and Russia detained the two criminals in Odessa. They were plotting the assassinations of the presidential candidate Vladimir Putin in Moscow. It was also said that notorious warlord Doku Umarov was behind the crime.

The criminals attracted the attention of law enforcement authorities on January 4, when Russian citizen Ruslan Madayev was killed as  a result of the explosion of a homemade bomb in an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Odessa. Security services detained Pyanzin, Osmayev and his father. Aslanbek Osmayev was later released from detention center in Odessa. Investigators found that he and other relatives of Osmayev were not connected with criminal activities.

Pyanzin and Osmayev Jr. were charged in accordance with Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ("Illegal handling of weapons and explosives"). However, after consultations with the Russian Federal Security Bureau, the Ukrainian secret services found out that Adam Osmayev was on the international wanted list for the preparation of a terrorist act in Moscow, which was averted in 2007.

It was determined during the investigation that the attempt on Putin's life was to be held immediately after the election. In addition, the criminals were going to kill the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. Kadyrov was supposed to be killed in Odessa: the Chechen official was due to attend the fight for the title of the interim WBO middleweight champion between Mike Miranda of Brazil and Zaurbek Baysangurov of Chechnya.

In March, it became known that the charges against Osmayev were expanded. His previous charges  - "Unlawful handling of explosives" and "Property Damage" - were added with two more serious articles - "Participation in a terrorist organization" and "Preparation of a terrorist act". Ilya Pyanzin was charged under articles "Participation in a terrorist organization" and "Preparation of a terrorist act".

In Russia, the two suspects were arrested in absentia. The Russian authorities have been seeking the extradition of Russian citizen Osmayev since February. Originally, it was believed that this issue would be resolved fairly quickly. As it turned out, Russia had put the cart before the horse.

After the plans of Putin's assassination were made public a week before the presidential elections, many people - both in Russia and Ukraine - were rather skeptic about the whole story. Many said that the terrorists' intention to try to kill the president of Chechnya in Odessa was an odd decision to make since the authorities always keep an eye on the natives from the Russian Caucasus. In addition, the Ukrainian intelligence services initially believed that the criminals were preparing an attempt on a Ukrainian businessman and that politics had nothing to do with it.