MOSCOW, August 28 - RAPSI. Ilya Pyanzin, suspected of having been involved in preparing an assassination attempt against Vladimir Putin, says he was only a witness to the assassination plot, and that the late Ruslan Madayev was behind it, Kommersant daily reported on Tuesday

Pyanzin was extradited from Ukraine to Russia on August 27.

Last Wednesday, the Odessa Oblast Court of Appeals upheld the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office's decision to extradite Pyanzin. The following day, according to Kommersant, the prosecutors prepared Pyanzin for extradition; on August 25, the office handed the individual over to the Russian special services. On the same day, Pyanzin was delivered to Moscow and placed in the Lefortovsky isolation ward.

Pyanzin and fellow suspect Adam Osmayev allegedly planned to assassinate Putin after the Russian presidential elections last March. Pyanzin and Osmayev were arrested in Ukraine and charged with several crimes, including plotting to assassinate an official, organizing a terrorist act, and belonging to a terrorist organization. Both of them had previously been placed on an international wanted list.

The court dismissed Osmayev's extradition appeal and upheld the Prosecutor General's Office's decision to transfer him to Russia. However, Osmayev had submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which in turn advised Ukraine to suspend the extradition proceedings. Osmayev's extradition has been suspended until the Strasbourg court passes a judgment on the lawfulness of his extradition.

Ukrainian human rights lawyer Valery Kochetov of Odessa Academy believes that Pyanzin's extradition to Russia was in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Ukrainian law, and that his extradition only went through because Pyanzin and his defense were too slow in filing an appeal to the ECHR.

The newspaper reported that, according to sources close to the investigation, during the interrogation on Monday, Pyanzin told the investigator of the circumstances behind the Odessa terrorist organization's set up and the crimes it had planned.

According to Pyanzin, he was involved in the criminal activity against his will.

He also said that it was not Chechen born Adam Osmayev, arrested in Ukraine, and who confessed to organizing the attempted assassination, who was behind the plans, but his compatriot, the late Ruslan Madayev.

Pyanzin has denied all charges against him.