Putin Rejects Theory of US Intelligence Role in 9/11 Attacks

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with US filmmaker Oliver Stone he did not believe in the theory that implicates US intelligence agencies in the deadly 9/11 attack in New York.

On Friday, Stone released the transcript of his interviews with the Russian leader recorded between 2015 and 2017 that had been aired by the Showtime television network earlier in the week. Putin's quotes are given in the translation from Russian into English.

"I don't believe that [the US side planned to stick US whistleblower Edward Snowden in Russia to call him a traitor]. Nor do I believe that the American intelligence services were the ones to organize the terrorist attacks in New York," Putin told Stone.

On September 11, 2011, Islamist gunmen seized four passenger planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center in New York, which led to the collapse of the twin towers, and another into the Pentagon. The fourth jet came down in a field in Pennsylvania after being initially directed toward Washington D.C. Some 3,000 people lost their lives in the terrorist attack. Putin was one of the first world leaders, to call then US President George Bush to offer his condolences.