Russia's Channel One television said Monday that the suspects had been plotting to kill Putin in Moscow immediately after the March 4 presidential election, a ballot Putin is almost certain to win.

The station said the suspects had been arrested in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odessa, but gave no further details. It showed two men who said they were acting on the orders of Chechen warlord, Doku Umarov. The station said three plotters came to Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey with what it said were "clear instructions from representatives of Doku Umarov."

Russian and Ukrainian special services wouldn't comment on the report. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian Security Service said it had detained three Russian citizens on terrorism charges in Odessa. It wasn't immediately clear whether those suspects were linked to the anti-Putin plot.

The Ukrainian Security Service said the suspects were arrested following an accidental explosion in January that happened while they were trying to manufacture explosives at a rented apartment in Odessa.

"They told us that first you come to Odessa and learn how to make bombs," the station showed a man identified as Ilya Pyanzin as saying. "And then later, in Moscow, you will stage attacks against commercial objects, with the subsequent assassination attempt against Putin" the man said.

The state television footage, which was apparently shot in Ukraine, showed a video of Putin getting into his car being played on the laptop computer belonging to the second arrested man, identified as Adam Osmayev.

"This was done so that we had an understanding of how he was protected," Osmayev said. "The end goal was to come to Moscow and to try to stage an assassination attempt against premier Putin."

gb/acb (AFP, AP)