Arrest Made for Putin Plot Rumour Iran News Agency

Iran`s semi-official Fars News Agency, citing an informed official, said the arrest was made last week but did not give details.

A person working for a telecommunications firm has been arrested for being behind a rumour that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be assassinated in Tehran last October, a news agency said on Tuesday.

Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency, citing an informed official, said the arrest was made last week but did not give details.

"The person behind the Putin assassination rumour ... was identified," Fars quoted its source as saying. "That person was a contractual worker of a telecommunications company and was arrested last week."

Brushing off a Russian news agency report that there was a plot afoot to try to kill him in Tehran, Putin attended the Oct. 16 summit of the five Caspian Sea states. It was the first visit by a Kremlin leader to Tehran since Josef Stalin in 1943.

Iran dismissed the report, calling it "psychological warfare" by Tehran's enemies -- an apparent reference to Western powers -- to undermine Russian-Iranian relations.