The device made to resemble an explosive was reportedly found lying on a road 15 minutes before Putin’s motorcade was scheduled to pass in the city of Yekaterinburg earlier this month. Police assured the public at the time that no real explosives were found and no vehicles were under threat.

Two people have been detained for allegedly placing a fake bomb in front of President Vladimir Putin’s motorcade in central Russia, the Znak.com news website reported.

Two local residents with criminal records have been taken into custody in connection with the finding, a spokesman for the Sverdlovsk region police department told Znak on Tuesday.

“It’s difficult to say how long it took them to come up with the ‘apocalypse’ scenario,” colonel Valery Gorelykh was quoted as saying about the two men.

“Perhaps the idea came to them spontaneously, to punish detectives for repeatedly prosecuting them in the past,” the spokesman added.

An unnamed security services source told the outlet that “the guys were sitting and drinking when they suddenly decided to see what would happen [if they did it].”

“They found a shoebox, stuffed it with all sorts of junk to make it look like an [improvised explosive device], tied it all with a ribbon and placed it on the road,” the source was quoted as saying.

The suspects had been detained the day after Putin’s July 9 visit, Znak reported. At least one of them has reportedly been released while authorities are carrying out pre-investigative work.