Russian ambassador to the Netherlands: Dutch criminal investigation of MH17 is biased

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Dutch news station NOS published at December 15 2017  an interview with the Russian ambassador  to the Netherlands Alexander Sjoelgin. One of the topics discussed in the interview was MH17.

As in all statements by Kremlin representatives there is a lot of lying by omission by the Russian ambassador. PM Rutte, two Dutch ministers and JIT today responded.

In the interview which was done in english the ambassador made the following statements:

“The researchers of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), who are investigating the shot-down passenger aircraft MH17, take information provided by Russia less seriously than those of amateur investigators”.  He means Bellingcat by this.

According to the ambassador, Russia has not yet received any response to the radar data and other information provided. The transparency of the research leaves something to be desired, he says.

Russia continues to oppose a special international tribunal for the MH17 case, partly because it concerns civil aviation. Sjoelgin cites the Yugoslavia Tribunal and the Rwandan Tribunal as examples. “We are skeptical about international tribunals, they are expensive, not very effective and politicized.”

Ambassador also clearly says Russia will not extradite culprits if they turn out to be Russian; also will not “feel bound by Dutch verdict”.

Lying by omission

The words of the ambassador are typical for Kremlin representatives. Lying by omission means not telling all the relevant facts. For example the ambassador fails to mention Russia still did not hand over radar recordings of the second Russian radarstation which detected MH17. This radar station is located at Buturinskoe (Buturinskaya). The ambassador also fails to mention Russia vetoed the United Nations resolution to create an international tribunal. The ambassador also forgets that Russia only in September 2016 handed over primary radar recordings to the JIT. However in an non-standard format and without manuals which describe how to use the software which is required to read the radar data.

Also JIT several times stated it will add the information provided by Almaz Antey to the investigation records.

An overview of many lies on MH17 by Kremlin is here and here.

Dutch TV news showed a part of the interview with the ambassador to the Netherlands.

Dutch Prime minister Mark Rutte responded in Brussels to the statements of the ambassador. His response is : “we are not letting Russia what to do. I am fully supporting the independance of the investigation. Let these people do their job and I am distancing from this. ”

NOS published a report about Rutte’s response here. This has also a response of the Joint Investigation Team.

Rutte in Brussel over verwijten Rusland over MH17 “we laten ons dit niet vertellen. Ik sta pal voor de onafhankelijkheid van het onderzoek. Laat die mensen hun werk doen en ik werp dit verre van mij”

— Arjan Noorlander (@noorlanderarjan)

The response by Rutte in Brussels can be seen in the video included in the article,

 

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