Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview with NBC News' Megyn Kelly. Photo / AP
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.
"I was told: a plane en route from Ukraine to Istanbul was seized, captors demand landing in Sochi," Putin said in the film seen by Reuters.
The pilots of a Turkish Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800 flying from Kharkiv to Istanbul reported that one of the passengers had a bomb and the plane had to change course to Sochi, Kondrashov said in the film.
There were 110 passengers onboard, while over 40,000 people had gathered at the stadium to watch the opening ceremony, the reporter said.
