"Unfriendly actions": Russian Foreign Ministry announced the breakdown of consultations with Australia and the Netherlands on MH17 by The Hague

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the impossibility of further participation in a consulting group with Australia and the Netherlands on the crash of the Malaysian Boeing in Ukraine.

This is stated in the published statement of the Foreign Ministry.

“From the very first day the Netherlands adhered to the only version of what happened and promoted it both in the framework of a technical investigation and a criminal one.

Naturally, both investigations turned out to be biased, superficial and politicized.

Everything was done to reinforce the hasty accusations against Russia, ”the department said.

It is noted that Russia advocated a thorough, independent investigation and offered assistance, but The Hague filed an interstate complaint against Russia at the ECHR.

The Foreign Ministry indicated that they regard this step as "another blow to Russian-Dutch relations" and a demonstration of the intention "to continue the vicious path of unilaterally blaming Russia for what happened in the skies over the Donbas."

“Such unfriendly actions of the Netherlands make it senseless to continue the trilateral consultations and our participation in them.

Thus, the responsibility for disrupting the tripartite consultations rests entirely with the official Hague, ”the message says.

The Foreign Ministry added that they will continue to interact with the competent authorities of the Netherlands, but they will do it "in other formats."

The ministry added that as part of this work, it is planned to study the issue of Ukraine's non-closure of the airspace for civil aircraft over the zone of armed conflict over the Donbas.

Commenting on the situation surrounding the investigation of the MH17 disaster, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, the head of the Commission for the Protection of State Sovereignty, Andrei Klimov, indicated that the investigation was conducted with the "presumption of guilt" of Russia.

He recalled that Moscow was accused of what happened in the Donbass almost immediately after the disaster.

“All this trial and investigation came from the“ presumption of guilt ”(Russia. -

).

That is, it was an axiom for the investigation, so it is clear that this cannot continue indefinitely, and it is quite understandable that, of course, we would also like to get an idea about the truth, about the reasons for this whole incident, but I am afraid that with this consequence it impossible, "the senator said in an interview with RT.

Member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Anton Morozov, in turn, believes that the format of the investigation of the incident really should be changed.

“Of course, it is necessary to expand the format of the investigation, because, as practice has shown, indeed, if only the Dutch side is involved in the investigation, then it becomes one-sided and does not take into account the data of all other counterparties, who may also have important information on this case,” said the deputy in an interview with RT.

The parliamentarian believes that to study the circumstances, it is necessary to form an intergovernmental commission at the interstate level and with the participation of all experts, representatives of law enforcement agencies.

According to him, at least the Russian Federation, the Netherlands and Australia should take part in it.

As a reminder, a Boeing 777 passenger plane flying MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17, 2014 in the Donbass.

At that time, in the area of ​​the disaster, there was an active phase of the armed confrontation between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the detachments of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass.

Despite this circumstance, the airspace over the Donbas was open.

As a result of the liner crash, all 298 people on board were killed.

Among them were 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

The victims were citizens of the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and other states.

A number of Western media outlets and politicians blamed the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass and Russia for what happened.

A Joint Investigation Group (JIT) was formed to investigate the disaster by the forces of several countries, whose citizens died in the plane crash.

Representatives of Malaysia, which owned the Boeing 777, were included in the JIT only a few months after its formation.

At the same time, Ukraine participated in the work of the group, but Russia was not allowed to the investigation.

Despite this circumstance, the Russian side provided the investigation team with the declassified technical data of the Buk missiles, information on radar surveillance of the airspace in the specified area at the time of the tragedy, as well as the results of an experiment conducted by the Buk manufacturer, the Almaz-Antey concern.

In the course of its work, the investigation team stated that Flight MH17 was shot down by a 9M38 missile for the Buk anti-aircraft missile system, which was allegedly delivered to Donbas from Russian territory.

At the same time, the Almaz-Antey concern indicated that the last missile of this type was fired back in the USSR and that they are not in service with the Russian Federation.

On the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, July 17, 2019, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the JIT investigation from the very beginning was aimed at making Russia solely guilty, despite the fact that from the first day of the tragedy Moscow interacted with Amsterdam, the Dutch Security Council and the Joint Investigation Group.