Russian security services are hunting for one of their own in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, according to a report.
The suspected conspiracy came to light after a chance encounter between the would-be hitman — a rogue officer with an unspecified Russian law enforcement agency — and a businessman at a suburban karaoke bar, reported the Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, which claims close ties to Russia’s security apparatus.
Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs learned of the purported plan to kill Putin, who turns 71 Saturday, earlier this week from a specialist in the presidential administrative directorate.
The specialist had received an early-morning phone call from a man who identified himself as 37-year-old Mikhail Yurchenko, according to a source speaking to VChk-OGPU.
Yurchenko, who introduced himself as an entrepreneur in the construction field, said “with alarm” that he had been involved in a “strange story” while hanging in the swanky, chandelier-adorned karaoke bar “Honey” in the city of Chekhov, located about 40 miles from Moscow.
The whistleblower said that he met a stranger there with whom he ended up having a long “heart-to-heart” conversation “about the war and future life in Russia,” the Telegram channel reported.
At one point during the encounter, Yurchenko’s new acquaintance flashed a red service identification card at him “and declared that he had an assignment ‘to remove Vladimir Putin,'” according to VChK-OGPU.
Yurchenko did not argue with the man and quickly switched topics.
The businessman said that he did not remember his drinking buddy’s name and did not get a good look at the contents of his ID card.
However, the conversation did not sit well with Yurchenko, and after a couple of days “of worrying” he went to the authorities with his account, which was said to have sparked a manhunt for the prospective assassin.
Acting on Yurchenko’s tip, law enforcement officers visited the karaoke bar to “study the situation” there.
The Telegram channel noted that the club in Chekhov is known to be popular with employees of various state agencies.