British intelligence service MI6 have uncovered a plot by a Russian hitman to assassinate a former Foreign Minister of CRI Akhmed Zakayev at a London hotel, British Sunday Mirror writes.
Employees of MI6 have told Zakayev he faced execution - like his friend, a colonel of FSB, Alexander Litvinenko, killed in the UK with radioactive poison.
"Zakayev, 53, was due to meet Russian journalists in the next few days. But intercepted phone calls and information from Russia revealed the dissident, a friend of actress Vanessa Redgrave, was a target for the FSB security service - successor to the KGB", the edition notes.
The planned execution was to be a bullet to the back of the head when the group met, newspaper writes, but does not specify, whether killers discussed the plan of murder of Zakayev by phone
A security source said: "There is a real concern that the men coming across were to carry out a hit on Mr Zakayev."
Zakayev, the former head of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of CRI, declared himself "a prime minister in exile" (the so-called "the telephone government") after the establishment of the Caucasus Emirate.
From the end of last year most of Zakayev's circle departed from him, having formed independent groupings, or went to Chechnya to Kadyrov. However, Zakayev, in his closest circle, also has close supporters of Kadyrov.
Thus, instead of Yaragi Abdullayev, a "right hand man" of Zakayev, who went to Chechnya, his place has been occupied by Ilyas Arsanukayev, a brother of Abu Arsanukayev, one of the closest aides of Ramzan Kadyrov.
Meanwhile, according to the British edition, in his recent interview Zakayev told about a possible assassination attempt on him:
"I remember holding a press conference with my dear friends Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya. Now they are murdered and I am the only one left."
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