Putin had okayed shooting down a plane during 2014 Olympics

MOSCOW: Russia’s Vladimir Putin in 2014 ordered a passenger aircraft which was reported to be carrying a bomb and targeting the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi to be downed, the president said in a film shown on Sunday.

In a two-hour documentary titled Putin and available on Russian social media, Putin told reporter Andrey Kondrashov he received a telephone call from security officers responsible for the Sochi Olympics on February 7, 2014, shortly before the opening ceremony was due to start.

The pilots of a Turkish Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800 flying from Kharkiv to Istanbul reported that one of the 110 passengers on board had a bomb and the plane had to change course to Sochi, Kondrashov said.

Putin said he sought advice from security officers and was told the emergency plan for that type of situation called for the plane to be shot down.