Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 with 298 passengers and crew aboard was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile as it was flying through Ukrainian airspace in July 2014.
This much was established by a Dutch Safety Board enquiry which reported in October 2015.
But that enquiry’s brief only covered how the airliner was destroyed. It did not extend to the location from where the road-transported Buk missile was launched nor where it came from originally.
Now a Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team made up of Australian, Belgian, Dutch, Malaysian and Ukrainian prosecutors has said that the missile was transported from Russia and fired from Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian-backed rebels.
Moscow has always insisted that the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces who also operate Buk system. But the latest international investigation using a range of video and audio evidence, including phone taps, has concluded without any doubt that the missile battery arrived from Russia. It seems reasonable to conclude that it was manned by Russian personnel who were fully trained in its use. They were there to protect the rebel forces from attacks by fast jets from the Ukrainian air force. To do that successfully they would need to know precisely what they were doing.
Russia has denied any involvement and has consistently refused to admit that its own troops have been sent to eastern Ukraine to bolster the rebel defenses, which at one time were in danger of collapsing before an advancing Ukrainian army. The Kremlin’s action in this largely ethnic Russian Donbas area came only weeks after Russian president sent special forces into Crimea at the start of the invasion and seizure of that part of the Ukraine. At the time Putin denied that these troops, known as the “little green men” because their uniforms sported no identification whatsoever, were anything to do with Russia. Later however he cheerfully admitted that that had been a lie.
On this basis, it is clear that Putin’s protested innocence of the destruction of an international airliner carries no weight at all. One of the outstanding Russian tactics, now as in Soviet times, is to come up with a range of alternative scenarios, each in their own way unconvincing, but when combined nevertheless serve to muddy the waters. But this has not worked with the slaughter of 298 people in the skies above Ukraine.
The Russian response contrasts sharply with US reactions when the guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988 with 290 people on board. The Americans wrongly identified the aircraft as F-14 Tomcat fighter. The Vincennes’ commander claimed that repeated attempts to contact the plane went unanswered. The Iranians insisted the flight was sending out signals showing it was a civilian aircraft. Washington never admitted an error, but did reach a $61.8 million compensation deal for the death of the passengers.
Pentagon insiders briefed that Tehran may have set up the incident in a cynical and heartless attempt to compromise the US or trick it into ignoring a future genuine attack. It did not seek to assert that this had been sloppy procedure by the pilots of Flight 655. But the big difference with the MH17 crime is that as soon as the American error became clear Washington fronted up. That has simply never been the Russian way.
