Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted yesterday that "of course" he would travel to Tehran for a key visit, despite reports about a possible assassination attempt.
Putin told reporters in Germany during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that his trip -- the first by a Russian president to Iran -- would go ahead as scheduled.
"Of course I am going to Iran," Putin said. "If I always listened to all the various threats and the recommendations of the special services I would never leave home."
Earlier yesterday, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Tehran that he could not confirm that Putin would arrive in the Iranian capital late yesterday as scheduled.
Russia's Interfax news agency, citing a source in Russia's special services, said on Sunday that suicide terrorists had been trained to carry out the assassination in Iran. The Kremlin said Putin was informed about this threat.
Putin said in Germany that the trip to Iran had been planned long in advance and he would hold talks with Iranian leaders regarding Tehran's disputed nuclear program, although he stressed the original purpose of the trip was to discuss issues affecting states bordering on the Caspian Sea.
Russia, which is building Iran's first nuclear plant, has resisted the US push for stronger sanctions against Tehran and strongly warned Washington against using force. But it has urged Iran to comply with international controls on its nuclear activities.
Putin's Tehran trip has repeatedly been postponed, as has the launch of the nuclear plant.
Russia warned early this year that the plant in the southern port of Bushehr wouldn't be launched this fall as planned because Iran was slow in making payments. It has also delayed the shipment of uranium fuel for the plant.
Iranian officials have angrily denied any payment arrears and accused the Kremlin of caving in to Western pressure.
Putin is to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and attend today's summit of Caspian Sea nations. He is the first Kremlin leader to travel to Iran since Josef Stalin attended the 1943 wartime summit with then British prime minister Winston Churchill and US president Franklin Roosevelt.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini dismissed reports about the assassination plot as disinformation spread by adversaries hoping to spoil Russian-Iranian relations.
"Such kinds of false news won't have any impact on the plans that we have for [Putin's] visit," Hosseini told a press conference yesterday.
Putin's trip would be important for Iran even if it yielded no agreements.
"It's a break in international isolation, a chance to show that Iran is an important country," said Alexander Pikayev, a leading expert on Iran with Russia's Institute for World Economy and International relations.
Iranian media also emphasized the importance of Putin's trip. Iran's state television said the visit would "show Russia's independence from the United States."
"Iran can use the visit to lobby for getting our nuclear dossier out of the UN Security Council and Russia can strengthen its opposition to the US through boosting ties with Tehran," the hard-line daily newspaper Resalat said in an editorial yesterday.
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