In fact, word has leaked from U.S. intelligence that an intentional explosion brought the airplane down and that President Vladimir Putin was behind it.

The CIA would have some familiarity with such methods.  The contrived "accident" is right there in their assassination manual as an expedient form of secret assassination, allowing the perpetrator to deny responsibility for something deemed not to be a murder at all and attracting little attention.   An airplane crash is not on their list of contrived accidents, but it takes little imagination to see that that would be one of the easiest forms to pull off.  All it would require would be access to the airplane for the purpose of planting a timed explosive prior to the flight.  Suspicions of such secret assassinations in the United States are widespread.

The first one that comes to mind is that of John Kennedy, Jr.  Michael Rivero includes him on his voluminous "Clinton body count" list because he was said to be seriously considering running for the U.S. Senate seat for New York that Hillary Clinton eventually won, using it as a springboard for her political career.  In fact, Rivero has the names of 39 people on the list who have died in airplane accidents alone.