DISINFO: JIT chose to ignore Russian evidence of the MH17 crash
SUMMARY
Russian Deputy Prosecutor-General Nikolai Vinichenko stated that the Russian side provided all Russian radar data to the Netherlands, with documents indicating that the BUK missile system that hit the (Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777) was Ukrainian, but this information was ignored by investigators.
Accusations by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) into Russia’s involvement in the Malaysian Boeing crash are groundless.
RESPONSE
The report advances recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about the MH17 crash.
First of all, Russia's interest in aiding the JIT investigation is not a relevant condition of its membership in JIT. The crash did not take place over Russian territory and claimed no Russian lives, which precludes any basis for Moscow to be represented in the JIT. Dutch Chief Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke told a Russian newspaper that "if MH17 were shot down over Russia, I would have suggested that Russia be made a member of the JIT group."
Secondly, the "evidence" claimed by Russia, namely radar data and the "field experiment" conducted by the Russian military company Almaz-Antey, is only a small sample of misleading claims advanced by Moscow since 2015, some of which have contradicted one another.
The BUK-TELAR was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and subsequently, after having shot down flight MH17, was taken back to the Russian Federation. On 24 May 2018, JIT stated that the BUK-TELAR that was used to down MH17 originates from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile brigade, a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation. The JIT reached this conclusion after extensive comparative research. See another detailed debunk of this claim here.
On the basis of the investigation conducted by the JIT, with the participation of law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine and the Netherlands, the Dutch Public Persecution service will prosecute Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, Sergey Nikolayevich Dubinskiy, Oleg Yuldashevich Pulatov and Leonid Volodymyrovych Kharchenko for causing the MH17 crash and murdering all 298 persons on board. The Public Prosecution Service alleges that the four individuals cooperated to obtain and deploy the BUK TELAR at the firing location with the aim of shooting down an aircraft. For that reason, they can also be held jointly accountable for downing flight MH17.
The JIT conclusions were further corroborated by the Bellingcat Investigation Team. For the full Bellingcat report see here.