A group attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

Russian and Ukrainian special services have arrested a group of suspects over an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia's state television reported Monday.

The Channel One said the suspects, linked to a Chechen rebel leader, were preparing to kill Putin in Moscow immediately after next Sunday's presidential vote, in which he is all but certain to reclaim the presidency, the ABC reports.

The station said the suspects had been arrested in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odessa following an accidental explosion that occurred on Jan. 4 while they were trying to manufacture explosives at a rented apartment, the source says.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the report to the ITAR-Tass news agency, but refused to make any further comment.