Statements by Australian authorities regarding the start of the MH17 crash trial have cast doubt on the country's commitment to truth. This statement was made by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.

“We drew attention to the joint statement of the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of this country Maris Payne on March 7 this year in connection with the start of the trial in the Netherlands in the case of MH17. In it, in particular, an attempt is made to link consultations between Australia, the Netherlands and Russia with the allegations of The Hague and Canberra about “the responsibility of Russia as a state for its role in the crash of an airplane performing flight MH17,” Zakharova quoted the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry .

Zakharova noted that because of such statements, the audience may have the impression that this topic is the subject of tripartite consultations, which is not true. According to the Russian diplomat, such statements call into question the good faith of the Australian side in conducting joint consultations and Canberra’s commitment to establishing the truth.

  • Spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova
  • RIA News
  • © Evgeny Odinokov

“With regret, we note the distortion of facts that have become traditional for the Australian side and the desire to adjust reality to the“ coordinate system ”already formed in official Canberra, in which the perpetrators can simply be“ appointed ”and materials inconvenient for the investigation, including those transmitted by the Russian side as part of implementation of UN Security Council resolution 2166, ignored, ”added Maria Zakharova.

History of the tragedy

Recall, the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger plane, flying MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

At this time, in the east of the country there was an active phase of an armed conflict between the Ukrainian army and the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics. Despite the hostilities, the Ukrainian authorities did not close the airspace over the Donbass for passenger aircraft.

The disaster killed all 298 people on board - 283 passengers and 15 crew members. Among them were citizens of the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and several other countries.

Almost immediately after the tragedy, the Western media blamed the unrecognized republics and Russia for the incident. Several countries whose citizens died in the crash created a Joint Investigative Group (CVG) to investigate the circumstances of the incident. It included representatives from the Netherlands, Australia and Belgium. In addition, Ukraine was involved in the work of the group. Russia was not allowed to be investigated.

It is worth noting that representatives of Malaysia, which owned the Boeing 777, were included in the GCC only a few months after its formation.

In May 2018, the investigation team stated that flight MH17 was shot down by a 9M38 series missile for the Buk anti-aircraft missile system, which was allegedly delivered to Donbass from Russian territory.

However, a few months later, in September 2018, the Russian Ministry of Defense showed signs of falsification of the videos used by the SSG to confirm this theory. The mounted video allegedly confirmed the presence of the Buk air defense system in territories under the control of the forces of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR.

On the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, on July 17, 2019, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the investigation of the GCC from the very beginning was aimed at guilty exclusively of Russia, despite the fact that Moscow from the first day of the tragedy interacted with Amsterdam, the Netherlands Security Council and the Joint Investigative Group .

At the same time, the Foreign Ministry reminded that Russia took unprecedented measures by sending the declassified "technical and design data of Buk missiles," the raw data of radar surveillance of airspace at the time of the tragedy, and information about the full-scale experiment conducted by the air defense system manufacturer to the Netherlands "Buk" - concern "Almaz-Antey".

Political court

On February 3, 2020, the Dutch national prosecutor indicted four defendants in the case: three Russian citizens - Igor Strelkov, Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Harchenko.

Hearings in the case of the crash in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 of an aircraft operating flight MH17 began in Amsterdam on March 9. Lawyers involved in the trial represent the interests of only Oleg Pulatov, the position of the other defendants in the courtroom was not announced.

  • MH17 Crash Judges
  • Reuters
  • © Piroschka van de Wouw

On March 10, during a meeting, the Dutch prosecutor Dedi Voi-A-Tsoi read out the testimony of an anonymous “witness M58”, who stated that he allegedly saw “Russian soldiers” before the launch of the Buk air defense system on the day of the crash of flight MH17.

“The witness repeatedly stated, among other things, that he recognized the Russian accent from the soldiers present at the launch site, and that the Russian soldiers were on this Buka,” the prosecutor said.

On what basis was it concluded that the conversation was between “Russian soldiers” and not Ukrainians who also speak Russian, the prosecutor did not explain.

However, during the hearing, the Dutch side accused Russia of interfering in the investigation of the disaster.

So, prosecutor Tiis Berger said that Russian intelligence agencies allegedly tried to track down anonymous witnesses involved in the process, as well as hack into the databases of Malaysian investigating authorities. In his accusations, he referred to certain conclusions of the special services of Britain and Holland.

At the end of the meeting, the court decided to postpone the hearing to March 23. During this time, the judicial board will have to decide on an additional investigation, the possibility of interrogating new witnesses and a number of other issues.

As political analyst Alexander Asafov noted in an interview with RT, Australia and the Netherlands clearly support and adhere to the main ideological vector, which is set from the EU.

“For them, the question is not posed: Russia is to blame or not, since it has already been decided in London and Canberra - Moscow is guilty of a disaster without any reason. Trying to demonstrate Russia's guilt, Australia and the Netherlands are taking similar steps because they are participating in the anti-Russian consensus of Western countries, ”the political scientist noted.

The fact that Australia and the Netherlands in this investigation occupy a pronounced anti-Russian position, Vladimir Shapovalov, deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, also said in an interview with RT.

“The entire course of the investigation is not a search for objective truth, but an attempt to adjust, falsify, come up with evidence, including evidence, which should convince the world community of the guilt of the Russian side,” the expert emphasized.

Vladimir Shapovalov recalled that Russia has always taken an open position on this issue, offered its materials, services, assistance in the investigation, but its position was not taken into account.

“We are talking about an element of conspiracy in order to hide certain facts, to falsify the results of the investigation. Malaysia also drew attention to these details, accusing the Netherlands and Australia of allowing one-sided approaches to the investigation, which is unacceptable, since it involves a large trial in which victims were representatives of different countries. This is a great human tragedy that requires a comprehensive objective investigation, ”the expert concluded.