Iran has dismissed as baseless reports of a possible plan to kill Putin, branding the allegation as “psychological warfare” calculated by Tehran’s enemies — an apparent reference to Western powers — to undermine Russian-Iranian relations.
“(These) kinds of false news are not going to have any kind of effect on the plans that we have for the visit,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
“All the heads of the countries around the Caspian will be coming to Iran, and Mr Putin will also be arriving this evening,” he told a news conference that was broadcast by Iran’s English-language Press TV channel.
The Kremlin said on Sunday that Putin had been warned by his special services of the possible assassination plot.
Putin’s trip to Tehran was expected to be watched closely by Western capitals pushing Moscow for a harder line over an Iranian nuclear program they fear masks a drive for an atomic bomb.
