The Russian People Saw A Strikingly Different Picture Of MH17 Findings

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) ^ | October 14, 2015 | Tom Balmforth

[WhiskeyX]

MOSCOW -- As Western media broadcast somber footage from a darkened room in the Netherlands dominated by an assembly of dented, shrapnel-riddled pieces of a passenger jet shot down over Ukraine’s conflict zone last year, the pictures on Russian TV on October 13 were dramatically different.

[....]

On their front pages and Internet sites, Russian media moved headlines that seemed aimed at absolving Moscow of any of the blame for the downing of Malasyia Airlines flight MH17, which crashed on July 17, 2014, on territory held by Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. “Experts Say MH17 Might Have Been Downed By Ukraine,” state news agency TASS tweeted:

It was all part of what appeared to be a carefully considered campaign to push back against the news coming out from the Netherlands, where the Dutch Safety Board issued a report stating what many in the West already suspected: that the airliner was shot down by a Buk missile made in Russia and fired from an area held mostly by Russia-backed separatists.

[....]

Those efforts went into overdrive early on October 13: A few hours before the Dutch Safety Board even presented its findings, Russia put in place the linchpin of its campaign -- a report prepared by Almaz-Antey, the state-controlled arms manufacturer that produces Buk missiles.

[....]

These elaborate images were soon circulating widely on Russian TV, coupled with the news anchors’ solemn description of the arms maker’s central claim.

“The Malaysian Boeing was shot out of the skies of Donbas by a rocket that Russia no longer has, but which Ukraine does have,” an afternoon presenter on state TV declared, citing Almaz-Antey. [....]

[WhiskeyX]

The whole world witnessed the Buk missile launcher and its missiles travel from inside Russia to the firing position in Russian occupied territory of the Ukraine, saw the pictures of the Buk crew celebrate their shootdown of the aircraft, and then witnessed the photographs of the Buk and its crew as they departed the Russian occupied Ukrainian territory and return to Russia. So, the Russian lies and disinformation claiming Russia did not have the Buk missile we saw them move in and out of Ukraine the day of the shootdown is an absurd lie.