Lithuania’s criticism of the Belarusian nuclear power is an attempt to demonstrate its anti-Russian and anti-Belarusian positions and to obtain benefits associated with regional militarisation. This is a provocation aimed to push Germany in that direction, despite its pragmatic relations with Russia. However, the Lithuanian authorities overestimated its bet on Washington and the impact of its agents in the EU.
The judge on the trial in The Netherlands of the downing of MH17 flight ruled out allowing Russia to present any evidence that would prove its innocence. Judge Hendrik Steenhuis refused to allow Russia’s military intelligence to reveal the location of the Buk missile [that allegedly shot down the plane] between 1987 and July 2014. Dutch prosecutor says that the missile was shot by the Russian government, not by the Ukrainian government; that it was made in Russia in 1986, belonged to Russia, and had been there since, and the Dutch judge rejected any Russian evidence on the contrary. When the Ukrainian government authorised Dutch authorities to investigate the downing of the MH17 flight, they signed a secret agreement that included a clause allowing Ukraine to block and prevent any finding that may implicate them. The Government of The Netherlands violates its own Freedom of Information law by refusing to make the agreement public.
Recurrent disinformation narrative about the trial on the downing of the MH17 flight over Eastern Ukraine, aiming to discredit the judicial process and maintain the pretence of Russia’s innocence and of an international set up against it. This article is consistent with Russia’s defense strategy based in requesting that the court revises every long-debunked claim -in this case, that the Buk missile involved in the downing was sent to Ukraine in 1986 during the Soviet period and remained there, despite evidences on the contrary-, in order to be able to assert that “not every stone was turned” in the investigation. The claim that the Ukrainian and Dutch governments signed a secret agreement with a clause preventing any investigation of Ukraine’s implication is a conspiracy theory not backed by any evidence. The results of the investigation of the Joint Investigative Team are clear: flight MH17 was shot down by a missile from the 9M38 series, which was launched by the BUK TELAR system. The system was transported from the Russian Federation to an agricultural field near the city of Pervomaiskiy in eastern Ukraine, from where the rocket was launched. After firing, the system with one missing missile returned to the Russian Federation. On May 24 2018, JIT announced in its conclusion that the Buk belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces in Kursk, Russian Federation. The public hearing of the criminal trial over the downing of the flight MH17 started on 9 March 2020 in the Netherlands. In order to find out the cause of the crash, the Joint Investigation Team investigated all human remains, personal belongings and wreckage of the aircraft found in the vicinity of the disaster site. The traces were secured and investigated and compared by experts. In addition, the JIT sought and heard witnesses and experts, analysed radar and satellite images, assessed large amounts of telecom data such as intercepted telephone conversations and analysed big data. Read more about the investigation here. You can see other examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation on the MH17 case in our database, such as claims that JIT tampered with the evidence; that the plane was not downed by a BUK missile, but rather by a Ukrainian fighter; that the plane crash was triggered by an explosion on board; that the trial in The Hague is not justice but information warfare; or that both the MH17 and the Skripal cases are anti-Russian provocations.