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.

Minutes later he received another call informing him that it was a false alarm, he says.

He arrived at the Olympic venue in Sochi with Olympic officials shortly afterwards, he says.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed Mr Putin’s account, Reuters reported.

The first part of the documentary, entitled Putin, has been posted on social media accounts, including one belonging to key state media manager and commentator Dmitry Kiselyov, and a pro-Kremlin YouTube account.

Incredulity at Crimea question

During the film Mr Putin was asked by interviewer Mr Kondrashov – a top state TV presenter and currently Mr Putin’s election campaign press secretary – if there were any circumstances in which he could envisage returning Crimea to Ukraine.

“What are you talking about? Such circumstances do not exist and never will,” Mr Putin said. Russia’s Tass news agency reported his remarks.

Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine after the country’s pro-Russian leader was overthrown in 2014.

Last September the UN accused Russia of committing “grave human rights violations” in Crimea.

Betrayal ‘unforgivable’

In the film, Mr Putin says that he may forgive some things, “but not everything”.

When asked by Mr Kondrashov to clarify what cannot be forgiven, the Russian leader says: “Betrayal.”

However, Mr Putin says he has not yet had to deal with “serious events that can be called betrayal”.

“Maybe I have chosen people who are not capable of doing such a thing,” he says.

Grandfather ‘cooked for Stalin’

The Russian president’s paternal grandfather worked as a chef for the former leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, Mr Putin says.

Spiridon Putin was a highly regarded member of Stalin’s staff, Mr Putin says.

“[He] was a cook at Lenin’s and later at Stalin’s, at one of the dachas in the Moscow area,” Mr Putin says, Reuters reported.

Spiridon Putin continued to cook for the Soviet establishment until not long before his death in 1965 at the age of 86, the film says.

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Navalny, who is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest rival, posted a video on YouTube earlier this month, that showed metals oligarch Oleg Deripaska allegedly meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko on the billionaire’s yacht in Norway.

In the video, Navalny used Instagram posts from a woman called Nastya Rybka, who he claimed to be an escort. Rybka was on the yacht with both Deripaska and Prikhodko. The 25 minute video, which has been watched over 5 million times, claims that bribery took place.

Deripaska won an injunction against the video after a local court ruled that the video had violated his privacy rights. Last week, Deripaska said in a statement that Navalny’s video showed “outrageous false allegations.”

The female involved in the video took some of the Instagram posts down at the request of communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, but the Facebook-owned service also complied with the order to remove two more posts.

“When governments believe that something on the internet violates their laws, they may contact companies and ask us to restrict access to that content. We review such requests carefully in light of local laws and where appropriate, we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory,” an Instagram spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.

“We are transparent about any content restrictions we make for government requests with local law in our Transparency Report.”

Facebook’s latest transparency report, which covers the period between January and June 2017, shows it restricted 195 pieces of content after requests from Russia.

The YouTube video is still online and has not been taken down.

Google, which owns YouTube, has not responded to a request for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Basic Element, one of Deripaska’s company’s, said that the injunction against Navalny’s video “has nothing to do with any political struggle” between him and his political opponents. In an emailed statement to CNBC, Basic Element said that the decision, by Roskomnadzor, to block access to the content was to do with a court order rather than any “political motives.”

“Any suggestion that it acted at the instruction of the Russian government is ludicrous,” a Basic Element spokesperson said.

Roskomnadzor is yet to respond to a request for comment.

Prikhodko provided a statement to business newspaper RBC last week. “The political loser has once again tried to organize a provocation,” Prikhodko said in the statement.

‘Shame on you, Instagram’

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The bill, in retaliation for Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT being told to register as a foreign agent in the US, was earlier approved by parliament.

At least nine US-funded broadcasters, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty could be hit.

RT is accused of being part of Russia’s alleged meddling in the US election.

The broadcaster denies the claim.

The new Russian law affects foreign-registered media outlets which receive funding from outside Russia.

They are now subject to additional requirements and failure to meet them could result in the suspension of their activities.

If they are required to register, they will have to say in their broadcasts and on their websites that they are foreign agents.

A similar law already exists targeting charities and other civil society groups.

Russia’s justice ministry can now decide which outlets the steps applied to and under what circumstances.

RT said last week it had registered as a foreign agent in the US following a request by the Department of Justice.

The instruction came under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), adopted in 1938 to counter pro-Nazi agitation on US soil and applied to those engaged in political activity for a foreign government.

The measure would require RT to label anything it produces, making it clear its reports are distributed on behalf of the Russian state. The broadcaster said it would challenge the requirement in court.

Russia has denied it interfered in last year’s US presidential election.

–

Source: BBC

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Speaking at the Lord Mayor’s banquet in London, the prime minister said Vladimir Putin’s government was trying to “undermine free societies”.

Mrs May said they were “planting fake stories” to “sow discord in the West”.

But, she added, whilst the UK did not want “perpetual confrontation” with Russia, it would protect its interests.

Her comments are in stark contrast to those of US President Donald Trump, who last week said he believed President Putin’s denial of intervening in the 2016 presidential election.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is due to visit Russia next month.

In a major foreign policy speech at Mansion House in London, Mrs May described as a “very simple message” for President Putin, she said he must choose a very “different path” from the one that in recent years had seen Moscow annex Crimea, foment conflict in Ukraine and launch cyber attacks on governments and Parliaments across Europe.

Russia could be a valuable partner of the West but only if it “plays by the rules”, she argued.

“Russia has repeatedly violated the national airspace of several European countries and mounted a sustained campaign of cyber espionage and disruption.

“This has included meddling in elections and hacking the Danish Ministry of Defence and the Bundestag among many others.”

“We know what you are doing and you will not succeed. Because you underestimate the resilience of our democracies, the enduring attraction of free and open societies and the commitment of Western nations to the alliances that bind us.”

She said as the UK left the EU and charted a new course in the world, it remained absolutely committed to Nato and securing a Brexit deal which “strengthens our liberal values”, adding that a strong economic partnership between the UK and EU would be a bulwark against Russian agitation in Europe.

Mr Johnson, who will be making his first trip to Russia since becoming foreign secretary in December, has said the UK’s policy to Russia must be one of “beware but engage” following a decade of strained relations.

He told MPs earlier this month that he had not seen any evidence of Russia trying to interfere in British elections or the 2016 Brexit vote, in which Moscow has insisted it remained neutral.

“We will take the necessary action to counter Russian activity,” Mrs May added.

“But this is not where we want to be and not the relationship with Russia we want.

“We do not want to return to the Cold War or to be in a state of perpetual confrontation.

“As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia has the reach and the responsibility to play a vital role in promoting international stability.

“Russia can, and I hope one day will, choose this different path. But for as long as Russia does not, we will act together to protect our interests and the international order on which they depend.”

In her speech, she also said the authorities in Myanmar – formerly known as Burma – must take “full responsibility” for what “looked like ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya people in Rakhine province.

Responding to Mrs May’s speech, former Labour cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw – who has been raising the issue of Russian interference in UK elections for nearly a year – tweeted: “Asking why May suddenly acknowledging Russian interference now having stonewalled for months.”

–

Source: BBC

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“You can only ask so many times… he said he absolutely did not meddle in our election,” the US president said.

Mr Putin later dismissed the allegations as “political infighting”.

The US intelligence community has already concluded that Russia tried to sway the poll in favour of Mr Trump.

The US justice department has appointed special investigator Robert Mueller to examine any possible collusion involving Mr Trump’s team, and legal action has already been taken against several former aides

What are the allegations against Russia?

President Trump has refused to acknowledge a reported assessment by the CIA and other intelligence agencies that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.

The contents of the emails, passed to Wikileaks and posted online, were embarrassing to the Democrats and shook up the presidential campaign, which ended in defeat for Hillary Clinton.

In addition to the Mueller inquiry, congressional committees have been set up to carry out their own investigations.

Relations between the US and Russia have been strained for years, with the Kremlin long accusing Washington of seeking to sway elections in Russia and other ex-Soviet states including Ukraine and Georgia.

While Russian hackers are widely suspected of involvement, there has been no conclusive link to the Kremlin.

Denying that Russia had tried to interfere last year by fostering contacts with Mr Trump’s campaign, Mr Putin told reporters in Vietnam: “Everything about the so-called Russian dossier in the US is a manifestation of a continuing domestic political struggle.”

What does Mr Trump say to the allegations?

He said he believed Mr Putin had been “very insulted by” the allegations and that was “not a good thing” for America.

“He [Putin] said he didn’t meddle,” he added. “I asked him again.”

Asked if he believed Mr Putin, he replied, “He is very, very strong in the fact that he didn’t do it. You have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he has nothing to do with that. Now, you are not going to get into an argument, you are going to start talking about Syria and the Ukraine.”

He dismissed the collusion allegations as an “artificial Democratic hit job”.

Trump out on a limb again

Aleem Maqbool, BBC News, Da Nang

Donald Trump once again goes against the findings of his own intelligence agencies.

Because although the US justice department is investigating the scale and nature of Russian interference in the election of 2016 (and any links to the Trump campaign), the American intelligence community has already long determined that Russia did, indeed, interfere.

Yet Mr Trump suggested this story was not only entirely fabricated by his political opponents, it might even be costing lives in Syria, because it is getting in the way of his relationship with the Russian president and hampering their ability to help solve the conflict together.

“People will die because of it, and it’s a pure hit job, and it’s artificially induced and that’s a shame,” he said.

It is hard to know what the president hopes to achieve with this type of rhetoric. The investigation goes on.

How did the two presidents get on in Vietnam?

Mr Trump and Mr Putin met for the first time in July at a G20 summit in the German city of Hamburg. In Da Nang they were seen chatting briefly on three occasions within 24 hours during the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit.

However, they had no formal bilateral meeting, with Mr Putin blaming it on scheduling and protocol.

Mr Putin said he regretted that his talks with Mr Trump were too brief

They had warm words for each other, with the US president talking of their mutual “very good feeling” and the Russian leader describing his counterpart as “well-mannered… and comfortable to deal with”.

They did manage to sign off a statement vowing to continue the battle against so-called Islamic State in Syria until the militants are defeated and calling for a political solution to the conflict.

How far has US justice department investigation progressed?

Last month, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to having lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about the timing of meetings with alleged go-betweens for Russia.

He testified that Russian nationals had contacted him in an attempt to gain influence with the Trump campaign, offering “dirt” in the form of “thousands of emails” on Mrs Clinton in April 2016 – two months before the DNC emails were leaked.

Mr Trump has played down the importance of Mr Papadopoulos, calling him a “low-level volunteer” and “liar”.

On Saturday, Mr Putin brushed aside US media reports that a woman wrongly identified by Mr Papadopoulos as the Russian president’s niece had offered to help broker meetings with Kremlin officials.

“I do not know anything about it and I think it is just some fantasies,” Mr Putin said.

Mr Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and an associate were also placed under house arrest on charges of money laundering as a result of the Mueller inquiry, but the charges do not relate to the election.

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Source: BBC

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It said a statement was prepared by experts after they met briefly on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam on Saturday.

There has been no official confirmation from the US about the statement so far.

The Kremlin say they also agreed there was no military solution to the conflict in Syria.

A meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin was widely expected at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit, but few details have emerged.

In total the two leaders had three encounters in the Vietnamese port city of Da Nang since late on Friday.

They met for the first time in July at the G20 summit in the German city of Hamburg.

Questions over Donald Trump’s ties to Moscow have dogged his presidency, with key former aides under investigation for alleged collaboration with Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Kremlin has denied the allegations.

While there was no official comment from the White House, a statement released by the Kremlin on Saturday said the leaders had “agreed that the conflict in Syria has no military solution”.

They also confirmed their “determination to defeat Isis [another term for IS]” and called on all parties to take part in the Geneva peace process.

According to Russia’s Interfax news agency, they also promised to maintain existing Russian-US military channels of communication to prevent “serious incidents involving the forces of partners combating IS”.

Russia has been the Syrian government’s main ally in the six-year long civil war. The US meanwhile has been backing Syrian Arab and Kurdish rebels on the ground, and since 2014 it has led a coalition carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria.

The jihadist group has been pushed out of its main strongholds in the country in recent months by a combination of offensives involving the Syrian army and the US-backed Kurdish and Arab coalition.

Mr Trump and President Putin posed side by side for a photo in custom-made blue shirts for the summit on Friday. They also shook hands as leaders sat down for talks on Saturday morning and later exchanged a few words before a “family photo” of attendees.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also met his US counterpart Rex Tillerson earlier the same day, a source from the Russian delegation told Interfax news agency. The Kremlin said the two had co-ordinated the statement on Syria especially for the meeting in Da Nang.

Questions over whether the two leaders would formally meet or not were raised after conflicting statements from the White House and the Kremlin on Friday.

–

Source: BBC

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The new law (link via Google Translate), signed today by President Vladimir Putin, goes into effect on Nov. 1 and represents another major blow to an open Internet. This weekend, news broke that Apple has removed most major VPN apps from the App Store in China to comply with regulations passed earlier this year that require VPN apps to be explicitly licensed by the Chinese government.

According to state-run news agency RIA (link via Google Translate), Leonid Levin, chairman of the Duma’s committee on information policy and technology, has said that the law is not targeted at “introducing new bans for law-abiding citizens.” Instead, he claims it is to prohibit access to illegal content. The scope of what is considered “illegal content” in Russia, however, has widened considerably during Putin’s third term as president, with the government exerting more control over what people access or post online. As Freedom House notes, “anti-extremism laws are widely used as a pretext to block political content, often without judicial oversight.”

Russia’s attempts to limit access to online information are concurrent with legislation that may put the privacy of users at risk. In 2015, the government passed legislation that requires all user data from Russian citizens to be stored in Russian-based servers, and last year it passed another law that requires telecoms and Internet service providers to retain traffic data for up to a year, a move that prompted VPN provider Private Internet Access to discontinue its Russian gateways.

–

Source: TechCrunch

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The decision to expel staff was made on Friday, but Mr Putin has now confirmed the number who must go by 1 September.

It brings staff levels to 455, the same as Russia’s complement in Washington.

This is thought to be the largest expulsion of diplomats from any country in modern history, says the BBC’s Laura Bicker in Washington.

The number includes Russian employees of the US diplomatic missions across Russia, the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford in Moscow adds.

Staff in the embassy in Moscow as well as the consulates in Ekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St Petersburg are affected, she says.

The US said the move was a “regrettable and uncalled for act”.

“We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it,” a state department official said.

Mr Putin did strike a conciliatory note, saying he did not want to impose more measures, but also said he could not see ties changing “anytime soon”.

Mr Putin told Russian television: “More than 1,000 people were working and are still working” at the US embassy and consulates, and that “755 people must stop their activities in Russia.”

Russia has also said it is seizing holiday properties and a warehouse used by US diplomats.

Mr Putin suggested he could consider more measures, but said: “I am against it as of today.”

He also noted the creation of a de-escalation zone in southern Syria as an example of a concrete result of working together.

However, in terms of general relations, he added: “We have waited long enough, hoping that the situation would perhaps change for the better.

“But it seems that even if the situation is changing, it’s not for anytime soon.”

The new US sanctions were in retaliation both for Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Russian interference in the US election.

In December, the Obama administration ordered the seizure of two Russian diplomatic compounds and expelled 35 Russian diplomats in response to alleged hacking of the US Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

The new US sanctions on Russia were overwhelmingly approved by both houses of Congress, despite objections from the White House.

US intelligence agencies believe Russia tried to sway the election in favour of President Donald Trump and now there are several investigations looking into whether anyone from his campaign helped.

Russia has always denied interfering and Mr Trump insists there was no collusion.

–

Source: BBC

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The House of Representatives approved the bill earlier this week, also by an overwhelming majority.

Having passed through both chambers, it will be sent to President Trump to sign into law.

But Mr Trump has sought closer ties with Russia, and has the power to veto the bill despite its political support.

A presidential veto can, in turn, be overridden by a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate – where just a handful of politicians voted against the bill.

Where does Mr. Trump stand?

The sanctions were drawn up in part to punish Russia further over the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

But the debate over the new measures has taken place against the backdrop of an ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling the in the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied the existence of any Russian involvement in the election to help his campaign.

But political correspondents say an attempt to veto the new sanctions could fuel suspicion that he is too supportive of the Kremlin.

The White House is also said to be particularly concerned over a provision in the new bill which would limit President Trump’s ability to lift the sanctions.

Under the legislation, he would be forced to consult Congress first.

Speaking earlier this week after the House passed the bill, top-ranking Republican Paul Ryan said it “tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe”.

But the bill was criticised by some European countries which deal with Russian energy pipelines – which may fall foul of the new sanctions.

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Source: BBC

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“This is simply some kind of hysteria. You can’t seem to stop. Do we need to give you a tablet?” he said in a debate at the St Petersburg Economic Forum.

A US journalist had asked him if Russia had reached a secret deal with Mr Trump to soften US sanctions on Russia.

Mr Putin again denied Russian meddling in the election that Mr Trump won.

The allegations of Russian interference in the presidential election were “harmful chatter” detrimental to international relations, security and the fight against terrorism, he said.

“This is an attempt to resolve domestic political issues by using foreign policy instruments,” he said.

“It’s easier to say ‘we’re not to blame – the Russians are to blame, they interfered in our election, and we’re good’. This reminds me of anti-Semitism. The Jews are blamed for everything,” he added.

The US intelligence agencies say the hacking of the US Democrats last year bore the hallmarks of Russian state security services.

President Trump’s campaign aides are currently being investigated over possible collusion with the Russian government.

Plea to US business

Mr Putin accused the West of carrying out “crude and systematic interference in Russian affairs for many years”.

Earlier, Mr Putin urged US business executives to help improve Russian-US relations, amid continuing Western sanctions.

He said those relations had hit “their lowest point since the Cold War”.

“I want to pass the buck back to you – help us to restore a normal political dialogue,” he said at the forum.

Besides the US allegations of Russian meddling, tensions have risen during the Ukraine and Syria conflicts.

Russia remains under US and EU sanctions because of its involvement in the Ukraine conflict and annexation of Crimea.

Western governments back Sunni Arab and Kurdish groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed militarily by Russia and Iran. But Islamic State (IS) jihadists are being targeted by both the West and Russia.

“I appeal to you and the US side: help the newly-elected president too, and his administration,” Mr Putin told the US business leaders.

Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak is at the centre of US suspicions about Kremlin contacts with the Trump team.

Mr Putin poured scorn on the allegations. “They’re talking such drivel… Our ambassador met someone. What’s an ambassador supposed to do? It’s his job.”

–

Source: BBC

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