Mar 12, 2018
Russia’s President Putin ordered the shooting down of a passenger plane that was reportedly carrying a bomb and targeting the opening of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, he says in a new film.
In the two-hour film, posted online, Mr Putin says he was told a plane from Ukraine to Turkey had been hijacked as the Games were about to start.
It was found to be a false alarm, he says. The plane was not shot down.
The film comes ahead of an election he is expected to win on 18 March.
Mr Putin faces seven challengers but none are expected to attract widespread support and the most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been barred from standing.
“I was told: a plane en route from Ukraine to Istanbul was seized, captors demand landing in Sochi,” Mr Putin says in the film, Reuters reported.
The pilots of a Turkish Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800, flying from Kharkiv to Istanbul with 110 people on board, said a passenger had a bomb and had told them to divert the plane to Sochi, reporter Andrey Kondrashov says.
In the film, Mr Putin says security officials told him that the emergency procedure in such a situation was to down the plane.
“I told them: act according to the plan,” Mr Putin says.
