President ordered terror risk passenger jet to be shot down

VLADIMIR PUTIN says he ordered a commercial airliner to be shot down in 2014 after he was told a passenger carrying a bomb was threatening the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

The close call is revealed in a twohour documentary entitled Putin that has been released on Russian social media.

The Russian president said he was called by security officials on Feb 7 – the day of the opening ceremony. “I was told: A plane en route from Ukraine to Istanbul was seized, captors demand landing in Sochi,” he said.

There were 110 passengers aboard the Turkish Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800, while more than 40,000 people had gathered at the stadium in Sochi, on Russia’s Black Sea coast, for the opening ceremony, according to the report.

Mr Putin asked for advice and was told the emergency plan called for the plane to be shot down. “I told them: ‘Act according to the plan’,” he said.

Minutes later, he received a second call telling him it was a false alarm generated by a drunk passenger.

Russia is again on high alert ahead of the football World Cup, which begins in June, and before Sunday’s presidential election.

After unveiling several new “nuclear super weapons” last week, the Russian defence ministry said it successfully tested a new missile system on Saturday capable of hypersonic speeds.

It released a video showing the Kinzhal missile being launched from a MIG-31 plane. It is reportedly capable of travelling at 10 times the speed of sound for a range of 1,200 miles.