After 15 months of Moscow’s denials and disingenuous alibis, the official conclusions are in: It was indeed a Russian-made missile that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 last year over eastern Ukraine, killing 298.
And while the Dutch-led investigation didn’t blame a specific culprit, it found that the Buk surface-to-air missile was fired from an area controlled by the “separatist rebels.”
That “rebellion” is a Russian pawn: Born only after peaceful protests ousted Vladimir Putin’s puppet president, it is armed and aided by Russia, its leadership and ranks liberally salted with Russian military “volunteers.” Moscow has thousands of regular troops in rebel territory even now.
No wonder Russia vetoed a UN Security Council probe of the MH17 shootdown. Now it’s up to Dutch prosecutors (most victims were Dutch) to bring criminal charges.
From the outset, all fingers pointed to Moscow — either the rebels or to Russian troops themselves.
The Kremlin hasn’t just denied any involvement, but it blamed the Ukrainian government. It also presented its own “report” claiming a Buk missile wasn’t involved — and even if it was, only the Ukrainians have Buks anyway (another baldfaced lie).
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov denounced the multi-nation investigation as “an obvious attempt to draw a biased conclusion and carry out political orders.”
Actually, it was just the opposite — a thorough, detailed probe that refused to do Putin’s bidding and absolve Russia of all blame.
Last year, the Obama administration cited the “extraordinary circumstantial evidence” of Russia’s guilt — while failing to follow up its rhetoric with meaningful action.
Then again, the rest of the world didn’t do much either. And the Ukraine war has now taken a back seat to Russia’s incursion in Syria.
Which brings us to yet another lie: Putin says he’s after ISIS, when he’s actually targeting the rebels who fight both ISIS and his ally Bashar al-Assad.
One thing is clear: Any Vladimir Putin intervention will leave many innocents dead.