TASSFri, 08 Dec 2017 20:02 UTC
© Mikhail Klimentyev / TASSRussian General Nikolai Tkachyov (left) attends a meeting with President Vladimir Putin (right) at the Kremlin in 2007.
Retired Russian Colonel General Nikolai Tkachev has slammed allegations of his being involved in downing the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July 2014 as stupid.
"I don't know what it is they are saying but it is obvious stupidity," he told TASS commenting on an article about a joint investigation carried out by
The Insider and Bellingcat. "
I have been living in Yekaterinburg for many years, participating in military and patriotic education programs for kids. I have been maintaining contacts with public organizations and taking part in various public events, always on the media's radar. I have nothing to add," he noted.
Earlier on Friday, the so-called investigative group Bellingcat, together with journalists from
The Insider, published the results of their investigation, claiming to "determine the identity of 'Delfin,' a key figure sought by the Joint Investigation Team." "
The investigation has identified, to a high degree of certainty, Delfin as Colonel General Nikolai Fedorovich Tkachev, currently serving as the Chief Inspector of the Central Military District of the Russian Federation," the article reads.
Comment: "Delfin" is supposed to have been a coordinator of separatist militias in Donbass when MH17 was downed in 2014, according to alleged intercepts of voice communications.
RFE/RL provides some more background, adding that Tkachyov plans on suing Bellingcat and
The Insider. The two groups reportedly enlisted "two independent analytical centers -- one in the United States and one in Lithuania" - slim chance of any neutrality there - to compare the audio intercepts "with recordings of Tkachyov made under the pretext of interviewing him for another story":
The two centers, using various digital analytical methods, independently determined it was "highly probable" that the man on the recordings and Tkachyov were one and the same.
According to the report, Delfin was a Russian general who was based in the Ukrainian town of Krasnodon in the summer of 2014 with the task of coordinating disparate separatist militia units in parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The Dutch-led Joint Investigative Team (JIT) has identified Delfin as a person of interest in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014.
...
Tkachyov, 68, is a decorated veteran of both Russian campaigns in Chechnya. He was released from military service in 2010.
After his retirement, however, he served in 2011-12 as a military adviser to the government of Syria. After his return, he was assigned to the Central Military District and based in Yekaterinburg.
Russia was already found guilty of MH17 by the media in the immediate aftermath of the attack. As far as the average person remembers, Putin personally ordered his proxies in the Donbass to down the jet. After that, nothing else matters. The JIT may determine it was an accident. They'll probably blame the separatists and perhaps implicate some Russian military men. The verdict will probably be used as justification for more sanctions. But the damage has been done - the story has already been milked for most of its propaganda value - facts be damned.
Comment: "Delfin" is supposed to have been a coordinator of separatist militias in Donbass when MH17 was downed in 2014, according to alleged intercepts of voice communications. RFE/RL provides some more background, adding that Tkachyov plans on suing Bellingcat and The Insider. The two groups reportedly enlisted "two independent analytical centers -- one in the United States and one in Lithuania" - slim chance of any neutrality there - to compare the audio intercepts "with recordings of Tkachyov made under the pretext of interviewing him for another story": Russia was already found guilty of MH17 by the media in the immediate aftermath of the attack. As far as the average person remembers, Putin personally ordered his proxies in the Donbass to down the jet. After that, nothing else matters. The JIT may determine it was an accident. They'll probably blame the separatists and perhaps implicate some Russian military men. The verdict will probably be used as justification for more sanctions. But the damage has been done - the story has already been milked for most of its propaganda value - facts be damned.