Disinfo: MH17: Accusations against Russia are groundless, it is a US provocation against Russia

Summary

All the charges that the Dutch prosecutor’s office and tribunal make against the Russian Federation and the DPR militias are groundless. In the summer of 2014, it became clear that neither the reunification of Crimea with Russia nor the conflict in the Donbas can destroy EU-Russia relations. The latter is necessary for Washington.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative aiming to discredit the International Joint Investigation (JIT) into the downing of flight MH17. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which is comprised of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service officials and the Dutch police, along with police and criminal justice authorities from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, has concluded that flight MH17 was shot down on 17 July 2014 by a missile of the 9M38 series, launched by a BUK-TELAR, from farmland in the vicinity of Pervomaiskiy. At that time, the area was controlled by pro-Russian fighters. The BUK-TELAR was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and subsequently, after shooting down flight MH17, was taken back to the Russian Federation. The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has concluded that the BUK-TELAR used to down MH17 originates from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile brigade, a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation. On the basis of the investigation conducted by the JIT, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is prosecuting Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, Sergey Nikolayevich Dubinskiy, Oleg Yuldashevich Pulatov, and Leonid Volodymyrovych Kharchenko for causing the crash of MH17 and murdering the 298 persons on board. The trial began on 9 March 2020 in the Netherlands. The European Union and NATO have called on the Russian Federation to accept its responsibility and to fully cooperate with all efforts to establish accountability. On the basis of the JIT’s conclusions, the Netherlands and Australia are convinced that Russia is responsible for the deployment of the BUK installation that was used to down MH17. The two governments are formally holding Russia accountable. On top of that, on 10 July 2020, the Dutch government decided to bring Russia before the European Court of Human Rights for its role in the downing of Flight MH17. As stated on the government's website, it "attaches importance to continuing the meetings with Russia on the matter of state responsibility. The purpose of these meetings is to find a solution that does justice to the enormous suffering and damage cause by the downing of Flight MH17." 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; that Moscow-supplied radar data was rejected; or that the MH17 crash was planned by Ukrainian, American, and Dutch intelligence agencies.

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PolitPuzzle (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 205
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 10/07/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: EU, Malaysia, The Netherlands, US, Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: Diplomacy with Russia, US presence in Europe, Conspiracy theory, MH17
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Disinfo: Western civilisation is corrupt and is dying, the barbarians that it welcomes will inherit its ruins

Western civilisation is corrupt and is dying. The barbarians that we welcome as migrants will perhaps inherit the ruins of Western civilization. But today’s barbarians are different from the barbarians that overran the Roman Empire. The latter admired Roman civilisation, they wanted to achieve similar greatness and changed their way of life after the fall of the Empire. Today’s barbarians despise us and know nothing about us. But we castrate ourselves and behave as if we, and not they, were beggars in a foreign country.

Jul 09, 2020
Disproof

The article provides no evidence to support its sweeping and apocalyptic claims that Western civilisation is dying. It repeats a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that seeks to discredit Western liberal-democratic societies by portraying them as decadent and immoral and claiming that they are collapsing. The article also contains a related pro-Kremlin narrative claiming that the corrupt, decadent, and “politically correct” West is unwilling to resist the increasingly massive influx of migrants, who are bound to overrun Western civilisation and to destroy it. This narrative is consistent with the claim that the Islamisation of Europe is proceeding apace. The central values and achievements of the modern West, and of Europe in particular — liberal democracy, the rule of law, human rights, equality before the law, freedom of conscience and expression, rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state — are still very much alive and continue to be a source of inspiration for people around the world. Read a similar case claiming that Europe is dying because of moral decay and will be destroyed by an army of a million of migrant militants stationed in underground cities.

Disinfo: MH17 tribunal is a politically motivated process against Russia and DNR

It is not a tribunal, but a trial paid for by bribes. It is used by the US to make Russia guilty and to make the people of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics hostages of the situation, which was provoked by Kyiv and Washington. Meanwhile, we see nothing new.

Jul 09, 2020
Disproof

Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine, aiming to discredit the criminal trial and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT). 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. The results of the investigation of the Joint Investigation 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 on the incident started on 9 March 2020 in the Netherlands. You can see other examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation on the MH17 case in our database, such as claims that the MH17 trial is biased against Russia, that evidence collected by JIT could have been fabricated, that JIT falsified evidence confirming that Ukrainian BUK is behind the crash, that the MH17 investigation is deliberately delayed, or that the MH17 case is politically motivated.

Disinfo: Ukrainian officials are obsessed by imaginary invasions and inexistent Russian imperial ambitions

Ukrainians are hysterical about an imaginary Russian threat. In June 2020, two top Ukrainian officials gave an interview where they discussed the Russian imperial ambition and the possibility for their country to face a large scale war with their neighbor. // Psychiatrists should consider opening a whole research institute in Ukraine to assess the level of insanity prevailing among the country’s elites.

Jul 09, 2020
Disproof

Recurrent narrative aiming at dismissing warmongering and weak Ukraine, and, on the contrary, praising peaceful Russia. The claims about Ukrainian elites lacking mental capacity are a classic example of dehumanisation as a tool of pro-Kremlin disinformation. The article refers to the interviews of Vasyl Bodnar by Interfax on June 29 and Alexeï Neijpapa by Dumskaya.net on July 5 If the original statements are read carefully - rather than reading only the account that Moscow or Donetsk of it - then their thoughts immediately sound more rational.

  • Vasyl Bodnar, Deputy Minister, MFA of Ukraine, talked to Interfax on June 29 about the existing military threat from Russia: "we see an increase in military capabilities on the eastern border of Ukraine, and secondly, we see a significant increase in military units of Russian troops in the Crimea. Russian occupation forces on the territory of the occupied Donbass are often brought to increase combat readiness. Any training can quickly go into an active phase of hostilities, so the risk is clearly increasing, and, of course, the military sees it. There was a recent statement by a representative of the Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate that the military clearly understands the threats posed by such actions. (...) Public communications are also active, aimed at showing that Russia is not abandoning its aggressive policy. "

  • In an interview to Dumskaya.net on July 5 Alexeï Neijpapa, the Commander of the Naval Forces of Ukraine didn't exclude the possibility that Russian troops will try to break out of the occupied Crimea and into another Ukrainian region, neighbouring Kherson. That is why Ukraine continues to strengthen its position in the area.

The claim by Russian media that "the French make fun of Ukrainian top official declaration" is not correct, since the article quoted from Donbass insider isn't a French media but an independent media based in Donetsk founded by an employee of the DoniPress official press agency and hosted in Moscow. The Agoravox French platform only republished the content and the Inosmi translation platform published a more polite Russian version. To read similar Disinfo: Ukraine is going to launch a missile strike on Russia.