RFE/RLWed, 06 Jul 2016 15:41 UTC
Representatives of the Joint International Criminal Investigation Team have arrived in Moscow to discuss their probe into the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine two years ago.
Team spokesman Wim de Bruin told TASS on July 5 that the delegation of investigators, prosecutors, and police will stay in Moscow for two days
to discuss the downing of the Boeing 777, which investigators have said was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile, killing all 298 people on board.
He did not disclose who he would meet with and said he would not make any statements on the Moscow visit. Interfax reported that the team would meet with representatives
from Russia's defense sector.
The investigative team includes experts from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine and is led by the Dutch National Prosecutor's Office. Their main task is to establish who is to blame for the crash.
Comment: Very curious! The two-year anniversary of the downing of MH17 is coming in just a couple weeks. Consider these two facts: 1) Western governments and media have unanimously blamed Russia and/or Russian-backed rebels for downing the jet. 2) Russia has not been officially blamed by the official investigative bodies charged with the task of investigating the incident. The most likely possibility: Russia is innocent, which puts said bodies in a bind - they know Russia didn't do it, but they can't blame the guilty (Ukrainian?) parties for 'political' reasons.
Update
During the talks, "Russia has once again confirmed its unconditional commitment to maximum efficient, swift cooperation with the Netherlands in order to clarify the circumstances of this terrible tragedy," Russia's Prosecutor General's Office said in statement.
...
The Prosecutor General's Office said that it saw "the most thorough and timely execution of the latest Dutch request for legal assistance" as its main objective of the Moscow meeting.
Russia's Investigative Committee also expressed its readiness to provide all the necessary assistance to the MH17 crash probe. However, it stressed that "the transfer of information related to the plane crash is, to date, carried out unilaterally" by Russia.
"The Dutch side isn't sharing the data it possesses with the Russian side, although the bilateral exchange of information would have sped up the investigation multifold," Vladimir Markin, an Investigative Committee representative, said in a statement.
Markin also drew attention to the fact that the Netherlands-led investigation is "ignoring calls for the Ukrainian side to provide such important information... as primary radar data, the conversations of military air traffic controllers and recordings of negotiations of the military sector."
Comment: Very curious! The two-year anniversary of the downing of MH17 is coming in just a couple weeks. Consider these two facts: 1) Western governments and media have unanimously blamed Russia and/or Russian-backed rebels for downing the jet. 2) Russia has not been officially blamed by the official investigative bodies charged with the task of investigating the incident. The most likely possibility: Russia is innocent, which puts said bodies in a bind - they know Russia didn't do it, but they can't blame the guilty (Ukrainian?) parties for 'political' reasons.
Update