Plot to bomb airliner thwarted on eve of 2014 Sochi Olympics, Russia reveals

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By BNO NEWS

A plot to bomb an airliner was thwarted on the eve of the 2014 Sochi Olympics with arrests in France and Austria, the Russian government has revealed.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov, who was chief of security for the games, told parliament on Monday that a number of “major terrorist threats” had faced the Olympics, including a plot in which female suicide bombers were to bomb an airliner.

“The operation was carried out in four countries by five secret services. On the eve of the Olympics all plotters involved were detained in Austria and in France,” Syromolotov said, as quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency.

“The plotters had an explosive device hidden inside a hand-cream tube. The micro-fuse had been brought from Syria. All that was quite real,” the deputy minister said, adding that the would-be suicide bombers had been supplied with charts showing where they should plant the explosives.

It marked the first time that Russia disclosed the alleged plot, but Syromolotov provided no details about the suspects, a motive, or at what stage the plot was when it was disrupted. It was also not revealed which flight was to be targeted.

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