Tag: MH17

Too many omissions in Dutch report on MH17

No real international investigation of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine has been conducted, Russia’s UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said, adding that there are too many blank spots in the newly released Dutch report on the tragedy.

The document, released by the Dutch Safety Board’s Tjibbe Joustra (DSB) on Tuesday, said that the Malaysian Boeing-777 crash was the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that struck it from the outside.

“It is very hard to call this investigation a truly international one. Many questions have been left unanswered. There are too many omissions,” Churkin said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 channel.

The Dutch report “did little to advance our understanding of what happened,” only confirming what was already known before, he stressed.

It says that the Malaysian plane “didn’t fall by itself, but was shot down. However no further thoughts in this regard are being presented,” the envoy said.

According to Churkin, Dutch investigators have also completely ignored the issue of at least one Ukrainian warplane that reportedly was in midair near the Malaysian plane when the disaster occurred on July 17.

“The report says another three commercial airliners were cruising in the vicinity at the moment of tragedy, but it does not say anything if Ukrainian warplanes were there, too. Our Defense Ministry said at least one military jet might have been there and eyewitnesses also say they saw one or two jets in the sky,” Churkin stressed.

“For some reason however the problem is bypassed,” he added.

It also looks “very strange” that the text of the DSB report doesn’t say a word about the UN Security Council’s resolution on MH17, the envoy said.

The Russian envoy also wanted to know the reasons for the 40-day delay in delivering the recordings of the conversation between air traffic controllers and the jet from the Ukrainian side to the investigators.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Grigory Karasin, repeated the call for more transparency in the MH17 crash investigation as he met with Malaysian defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, in Moscow on Tuesday.

During the meeting, it was “noted that the [Dutch] probe was incomplete,” the Russian Foreign ministry said in a statement.

Moscow believes that “very important expert examinations have actually not been conducted on the crash site. Without them, valid conclusions on the reasons of what happened are impossible.”

The ministry pointed out that some expert examinations are already impossible to carry out now due to protraction of investigation.

“Russia insists on maximally transparent work of the international commission, fulfilling all norms of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) and is ready to participate in it on a team basis,” the statement said.

All 298 people aboard the Malaysia Airlines jet died as it crashed in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on July 17. The majority of those on the plane – which was allegedly shot down – were citizens of the Netherlands.

The disaster has prompted NATO to become more deeply involved in the Ukraine conflict, blaming Russia despite a glaring lack of evidence.

It was initially alleged that the plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. However, claims were also made that the flight was shot down by a Ukrainian military jet which was in the area at the same time.

Putin’s plan for de-escalation in Ukraine should be heeded

Very big doubts arise as to sincerity of Brussels and Washington with regard to the #Ukraine crisis, the minister has noted

The calls presented in the plan of peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin should be heeded in Kiev, Luhansk and Donetsk.

Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov has stated this at a meeting with OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Chairman Ilkka Kanerva on Thursday.

“We do not give up. President Vladimir Putin personally makes great efforts in direct contacts with President Poroshenko to find such ways of cooperation that will allow immediately put an end to bloodshed, remove the threat for the civilian population, ensure solution to humanitarian problems, problems of reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure, and, of course, ensure the beginning of the negotiating political process,” the Russian minister said.

After such contacts, the Russian president formulated the seven-point initiative that is aimed at helping Kiev’s authorities and the militia of the southeast agree on and take steps in coordination to deescalate the situation, Lavrov said.

“We hope the calls will be heeded first and foremost in Kiev, Luhansk and Donetsk,” the minister said. “We will be ready together with OSCE within the framework of the contact group to help the conflicting parties to move along the path of stabilization of the situation in practice.”

“Decisions of the Council of Europe, UN Security Council, and OSCEsce on Ukraine must be implemented undeviatingly; this applies to investigation of events at Maidan, in Odessa, and Boeing airliner crash,” the Russian foreign minister emphasized.

Very big doubts arise as to sincerity of Brussels and Washington with regard to the Ukraine crisis, the minister has noted.

Lavrov drew attention to the following fact: “There was no lack in peace initiatives. We were actively pushing forward approaches which are sealed in the Geneva Statement dated April 17. We fixed the Berlin Declaration and documents which presuppose an immediate cessation of fire and the start of a respectful inclusive dialogue on a constitutional reform with the participation of all regions. None of those that signed the documents together with us, I mean Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union, are interested, as it seemed to us, in implementing what we reached agreement about. This is very sad.”

“Since both OSCE and the United Nations under the pressure of Western countries refused even to acclaim the Geneva statement, when our Western partners in OSCE blocked the initiative of Didier Burkhalter, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, of course, all that actions, the West’s behavior raises very big doubts as to the sincerity of what is being done by Brussels and Washington,” Lavrov said.

In his turn, Kanerva noted that the crisis in Ukraine’s southeast was impossible to settle by military means, and a political decision should be found. “We have arrived today here not to urge you to do something and not to persuade you to act in a certain way. We do not intend to assume any arrogant or aggressive attitude,” Kanerva said.

“We all are very concerned by the deteriorating situation in eastern Ukraine and on the border between Ukraine and Russia,” he added. “We urge all parties of the conflict not to attempt any further provocations and show a constructive attitude towards what is now happening in Ukraine,” Kanerva stressed. “That is why we believe necessary to prevent the flow of weapons and servicemen, which are now crossing the border. We need to find a secure solution for this crisis, which today became a very acute problem.”

Sergei Lavrov believes OSCE should provide a basis for cooperation in Europe that makes impossible “provocations” like the one staged in Ukraine. “We are always open, all the more so the OSCE indeed plays an important role not only when the fire has already broken out,” the minister said.

“The events in Ukraine are now the main problem, since there is a civil war, and civilians are eliminated,” the minister went on saying. “The southeast is the most hot spot of the Ukrainian crisis, but we shall not forget about the other parts of the country.”

In this regard, Lavrov pointed to the problems experienced by the Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, and which are discussed in Europe “but not aloud”. “That is why we considered the national unity in Ukraine the most important matter of principle,” the Russian minister stressed. He recalled the agreement of February 21, signed by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and other then-opposition leaders, who are currently members of the ruling coalition.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that the bet made by the United States and some Western powers on the so-called NATO’s victory in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict would ‘lead to nothing good.’

“I am sure that Russia just like many other European countries want the Ukrainian people to win in terms of its multiethnic diversity,” Lavrov said during his meeting with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn.

“Some of our Western partners, unfortunately including most influential player the United States, want NATO to win and want the situation, when the United States dictates its own will for everyone else, to win as well.”

“Nothing good will come out of such concept of exclusiveness, which President (Barack) Obama repeatedly voiced and nothing good comes out of it currently,” the top Russian diplomat said.

The decision of the Council of Europe (CE), the UN Security Council and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) must be fully complied with, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

He said at a meeting with CE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, “We are convinced that the Council of Europe can and should play an active and constructive role in this uneasy period.” “Ukraine is on everybody’s mind, and we are convinced that the decisions, taken by the Council of Europe, the UN Security Council and OSCE should be fully complied with, the same as the agreements made in Geneva, Berlin and other formats.”

“This is so, regarding the investigation of all the crimes, all incidents, be it the Maidan, Odessa events, or the Malaysian Boeing crash, this is also true about the need for an urgent agreement on the unconditional ceasefire and beginning of the inclusive political dialogue,” Lavrov said.

Kiev killed photographer that documented MH17 crash site

Photojournalist Andrei Stenin, who went missing in eastern Ukraine in early August, died about a month ago when a car he was travelling in came under fire, Rossiya Segodnya Director General Dmitry Kiselev said Wednesday citing results of an examination by the Russian Investigative Committee (IC).

Russia’s IC has determined that the car had come under fire as a result of a Ukrainian attack. The unit that carried out the attack was also using a tank, according to the investigators.

More than 10 cars containing peaceful civilians had been shot up. The contents of the vehicles, including the civilians’ belongings, had come into Ukrainian posession.

Stenin, 33, a photojournalist contributing to several leading Russian and international news agencies including AP, Reuters, AFP, Rossiya Segodnya (RIA Novosti) and ITAR-TASS, had been covering the conflict in eastern Ukraine before all contact with him was lost on August 5.

He was an experienced war photographer. The work he did in Ukraine included pictures of Ukrainian troops captured by self-defense forces, the horrific results of Ukrainian artillery shelling of militia-held cities and the crash site of the MH17 plane that was downed over the Donetsk region in July.

Ukrainian mediators proposed Rossiya Segodnya to negotiate swapping missing photojournalist Andrei Stenin for someone else, implying that he was still alive, the international news agency’s Director General Dmitry Kiselev said Wednesday.

The Russian Investigative Committee confirmed Wednesday that Stenin died approximately a month ago, when the car he was travelling in came under fire and near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

“Mediators [representing] the Ukrainian side contacted our agency and suggested holding talks on swapping him, implying that Stenin is alive,” the Rossiya Segodnya director general said.

He said that Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, said shortly after Stenin’s disappearance, that the reporter was held by Ukrainian security services. He retracted the statement later, saying he was misunderstood.

Stenin went missing in eastern Ukraine on August 5. Sources said that the journalist was possibly held by the Ukrainian military, but Kiev has never officially confirmed the information.

On August 9, Rossiya Segodnya filed a request with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry to take action in order to locate Stenin, with the ministry undertaking the case on August 11.

On August 12, Herashchenko said in an interview with Baltkom radio that security forces had arrested Stenin on charges of assisting terrorists. However, later Herashchenko claimed he was misinterpreted.

All major international human rights watchdogs – Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Federation of Journalists – have called for an urgent investigation into Stenin’s disappearance.

US, EU have yet to answer questions on how MH17 led to sanctions

Russia released military monitoring data in late July, which shows Kiev military jets tracking the MH17 plane shortly before the crash – and posed yet another set of questions to Ukraine and the US over the circumstances of the tragedy.

The plane crash has led to a series of sanctions against Russia from the US and the EU, but disconcerting details of how the the accident occured have yet to be answered.

Military officials – chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Andrey Kartopolov and chief of the Air Force Main Staff Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev – posed a number of questions to Kiev and Washington concerning the possible causes of the catastrophe in Eastern Ukraine that killed almost 300 people.

1. Why did the MH17 plane leave the international corridor?

“Please note that the plane stayed within the corridor until it reached Donetsk but then it deviated from the route to the north,” said Kartopolov.

2. Was MH17 leaving the route a navigation mistake or was the crew following instructions by Ukrainian air traffic controllers in Dnepropetrovsk?

“The maximum deviation from the left border of the corridor was 14 km. Following that, we can see the plane maneuvering to return to the corridor, yet the Malaysian crew did not get a chance to complete the maneuver. At 17.20, the plane began to lose speed, and at 17.23 it disappeared from Russian radars.”

3. Why was a large group of air defense systems deployed to the militia-held area if the self-defense forces have no planes?

“As far as we know, the Ukrainian military had three or four air defense battalions equipped with Buk-M1 SAM systems deployed in the vicinity of Donetsk on the day of the crash. This system is capable of hitting targets within the range of 35 km at the altitude of up to 22 km.”

4. Why did Kiev deploy BUK missile systems on the edge of militia-controlled zones directly before the tragedy?

“We have satellite photos of the places where Ukraine had its air defense units deployed in the southeastern parts of the country. The first three photos were made on July 14. The first photo shows Buk launchers 8 km northwest of Lugansk. You can clearly see a TELAR and two TELs. The second photo shows radars 5 km north of Donetsk. You can see two TARs along with other equipment and technical structures. The third photo shows air defense systems north of Donetsk. You can clearly see a TELAR launcher and about 60 military and auxiliary vehicles, tents for vehicles and other structures.

“Here’s a photo of the same area made on July 17. Please note that the launcher has disappeared. The fifth photo shows a battery of Buk missiles at the village of Zaroshchenskoye 50 km east of Donetsk and 8 km south of Shakhtyorsk on the morning of the same day. The sixth photo shows the same area on July 18. As you can see, the battery has left.”

No Buk missile defense units in Donetsk Region, 5km north of Donetsk city, on July 17, 2014.

5. On the day of the crash Kiev intensified Kupol-M1 9S18 radar activity, key BUK system components. Why?

“Also, July 17 saw increased activity on the part of Ukraine’s Kupol-M1 9S18 radars, which are part of the Buk system. Here on this chart you see that there were seven radars operating on July 15, eight radars operating on July 16, and nine radars operating on July 17 in the area. Then, starting with July 18, the intensity of radar activities radically decreased, and now there are no more than two or three radars operating a day. The reason behind this is yet to be found.”

6. What was a military plane doing on the route intended for civilian flights?

“There were three civilian planes in the area performing their regular flights at this time. There was a flight from Copenhagen to Singapore at 17:17, there was a flight from Paris to Taipei at 17:24, and then there was the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.”

“Also, Russian monitoring systems registered that there was a Ukrainian Air Force jet, probably Su-25, climbing and approaching the Malaysian Boeing.”

“The Su-25 was 3-5 km away from the Malaysian plane. Su-25 is capable of climbing to the altitude of 10,000 meters for a short period of time. Its standard armament includes R60 air-to-air missiles, which are capable of locking and hitting targets from 12 km and which are guaranteed to hit the target from the distance of 5 km.”

7. Why was the military jet flying at so close to a passenger plane?

“At 17:21’35, with [the Boeing’s] velocity having dropped to 200 kilometers per hour, a new mark detecting an airborne object appears at the spot of the Boeing’s destruction. This new airborne object was continuously detected for the duration of four minutes by the radar stations Ust-Donetsk and Buturinskaya. An air traffic controller requested the characteristics of the new airborne object, but was unable to get any readings on its parameters – most likely due to the fact that the new aircraft was not equipped with a secondary surveillance radar transponder, which is a distinctive feature of military aircraft,” said Makushev.

“Detecting the new aircraft became possible as it started to ascend. Further changes in the airborne object’s coordinates suggest that it was hovering above the Boeing 777’s crash site, monitoring of the situation.

“Ukrainian officials earlier claimed that there were no Ukrainian military aircraft in the area of the crash that day. As you can see, that is not true.”

8. Where did the launcher – from the video circulated by Western media and showing a Buk system being moved allegedly from Ukraine to Russia – come from? As the video was made on the territory controlled by Kiev, where was the launcher being transported?

“I’d like to say that the information we have presented here is based on objective and reliable data from various technical systems – unlike the groundless accusations made against Russia,” said Kartopolov.

“For example, media circulated a video supposedly showing a Buk system being moved from Ukraine to Russia. This is clearly a fabrication. This video was made in the town of Krasnoarmeisk, as evidenced by the billboard you see in the background, advertising a car dealership at 34 Dnepropetrovsk Street. Krasnoarmeysk has been controlled by the Ukrainian military since May 11.”

9. Where is it right now? Why are some of the missiles missing on the launcher? When was the last time a missile was launched from it?

Screenshot from video posted on Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior account, showing a Buk system supposedly being moved from Ukraine to Russia with two out of three missiles.Screenshot from video posted on Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior account, showing a Buk system supposedly being moved from Ukraine to Russia with two out of three missiles.

10. Why haven’t US officials revealed the evidence supporting claims that the MH17 was shot down by a missile launched by the militia?

“US officials claim they have satellite photographs proving the Malaysian airliner was shot down by a missile launched by the militia. But no one has seen these photographs so far. As far as we know, there was indeed a US satellite flying over southeastern Ukraine on July 17 from 17:06 to 17:21 Moscow time.

“This satellite is part of an experimental system designed to track and monitor the launches of missiles of various ranges. If our US colleagues have imagery from this satellite, they should release it for the international community to examine it in detail. This may be a coincidence, but the US satellite flew over Ukraine at exactly the same time when the Malaysian airliner crashed.”

Buk missile defense units in Zaroschinskoe, 50km south of Donetsk city and 8km south of Shakhtyorsk, on July 17, 2014.Photo courtesy of the Russian Defense MinistryBuk missile defense units in Zaroschinskoe, 50km south of Donetsk city and 8km south of Shakhtyorsk, on July 17, 2014.Photo courtesy of the Russian Defense Ministry

This is not the first time Russia asks questions about the plane crash. No explanations have followed with Kiev insisting they have full evidence of Russia being behind the attack, but so far only releasing fake tapes.

The USA, putting the blame on the self-defense forces and Russia, has refused to release any intelligence material.

So far the US and the EU has been backing its statements and sanctions by social media and “common sense.”

Source: RT

Russia to request UN report on MH17 air disaster

Russia is planning to request an official report on the progress of the investigation into the crash of a Malaysian passenger plane in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said Monday.

“We will ask for a briefing by the UN Secretariat on the progress of the implementation of Resolution 2166,” Churkin told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Churkin said it had been a month since the start of the probe and paragraph 13 of the resolution envisions periodical reports by the UN secretary general on the progress of the investigation.

On August 14, the Dutch Safety Board, which is in charge of victim identification and probing the cause of the disaster, said it had finished its work in Ukraine, and that an initial report on the flight MH17 crash will be released during the first week of September.

A total of 298 people, including 193 Dutch citizens and 27 Australians, died on July 17 as a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Donetsk Region of Ukraine.

The investigation into the circumstances of the crash is seriously obstructed by continuing clashes between independence supporters and Kiev forces in eastern regions of Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities claim the plane was shot down by independence supporters, whereas the latter say they do not have necessary equipment to hit a target flying this high.

Source: RIA Novosti

Ron Paul: US ‘likely hiding truth’ on downed Malaysian Flight MH17

Former Congressman Ron Paul said the US knows ‘more than it is telling’ about the Malaysian aircraft that crashed in eastern Ukraine last month, killing 298 people on board and seriously damaging US-Russian relations in the process.

In an effort to inject some balance of opinion, not to mention pure sanity, into the ongoing debate over what happened to Malaysian Flight MH17, Ron Paul is convinced the US government is withholding information on the catastrophe.

“The US government has grown strangely quiet on the accusation that it was Russia or her allies that brought down the Malaysian airliner with a Buk anti-aircraft missile,” Paul said on his news website on Thursday.

Ron Paul to Obama: Let’s just leave Ukraine alone!

Paul’s comments are in sharp contrast to the echo chamber of one-sided opinion inside Western mainstream media, which has almost unanimously blamed anti-Kiev militia for bringing down the commercial airline. Incredibly, in many cases Washington had nothing to show as evidence to incriminate pro-Russian rebels aside from tenuous references to social media.

“We’ve seen that there were heavy weapons moved from Russia to Ukraine, that they have moved into the hands of separatist leaders,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “And according to social media reports, those weapons include the SA-11 [Buk missile] system.”

In another instance, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters “the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions.” When veteran AP reporter Matthew Lee asked for proof, he was to be disappointed.

“I can’t get into the sources and methods behind it,” Harf responded. “I can’t tell you what the information is based on.” Lee said the allegations made by the State Department on Ukraine have fallen far short of “definitive proof.”

Just days after US intelligence officials admitted they had no conclusive evidence to prove Russia was behind the downing of the airliner, Kiev published satellite images as ‘proof’ it didn’t deploy anti-aircraft batteries around the MH17 crash site. However, these images have altered time-stamps and are from the days after the MH17 tragedy, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed, fully discrediting the Ukrainian claims.

In yet another inexplicable occurrence, Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet approaching the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe. No acceptable explanation has ever been given by Kiev as to why this fighter aircraft was so close to the doomed passenger jet moments before it was brought down.

“[We] would like to get an explanation as to why the military jet was flying along a civil aviation corridor at almost the same time and at the same level as a passenger plane,” Russian Lieutenant-General Andrey Kartopolov demanded days after the crash.

Paul has slammed the Obama administration, despite its arsenal of surveillance technologies at its disposal, for its failure to provide a single grain of evidence to solve the mystery of the Malaysian airliner.

“It’s hard to believe that the US, with all of its spy satellites available for monitoring everything in Ukraine, that precise proof of who did what and when is not available,” the two-time presidential candidate said.

“Too bad we can’t count on our government to just tell us the truth and show us the evidence,” Paul added. “I’m convinced that it knows a lot more than it’s telling us.”


Although no sufficient evidence has been presented to prove that the anti-Kiev militia was responsible for the downing of the international flight, such an inconvenient oversight has not stopped the United States and Europe from slapping economic sanctions and travel bans against Russia.

Moscow hit back, saying it would place a ban on agricultural imports from the United States and the European Union. Russia’s tit-for-tat ban will certainly be felt, as food and agricultural imports from the US amounted to $1.3 billion last year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In 2013, meanwhile, the EU’s agricultural exports to Russia totaled 11.8 billion euros ($15.8 billion).

After the crash, Ron Paul was one of a few voices calling for calm as US officials were pointing fingers without a shred of evidence to support their claims. Paul has not been afraid to say the painfully obvious things the US media, for any number of reasons, cannot find the courage to articulate.

“They will not report that the crisis in Ukraine started late last year, when EU and US-supported protesters plotted the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych,” Paul said. “Without US-sponsored ‘regime change,’ it is unlikely that hundreds would have been killed in the unrest that followed. Nor would the Malaysian Airlines crash have happened.”

Paul also found it outrageous that Western media, parroting the government line, has reported that the Malaysian flight must have been downed by “Russian-backed separatists,” because the BUK missile that reportedly brought down the aircraft was Russian made.

“They will not report that the Ukrainian government also uses the exact same Russian-made weapons,” he emphasized. – RT.COM

Germany, Switzerland oppose blind EU sanctions against Russia

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier insists on continued talks with Russia over Ukrainian crisis resolution.

Trust between the West and Russia “is doubtlessly undermined seriously,” the German foreign minister said in an interview with German Sunday edition Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung published on Sunday. However, this should be realised that “without co-operation with Moscow this is hardly possible to reach a political solution in Ukrainian conflict,” he said.

Commenting on EU sectoral sanctions imposed on Russia, the minister added that EU states had different histories of co-operation with Russia “which determines their relations with Russia also in different ways.” Moscow may take retaliatory measures, therefore, “no one should be surprised that sanctions will take some costs.”

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 airliner’s crash in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on July 17 has changed the situation dramatically, the German minister said. “But fury and indignation cannot and should not be the last say in foreign policy,” Steinmeier added.

Switzerland opposes blind duplication of EU anti-Russian sanctions. It will make Switzerland’s position weaker as a neutral-status country, said chief of the Swiss Federal Department for Economic Affairs, Education and Research.

Johann Schneider-Ammann said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag published on Sunday.

“This role will be weakened, if we duplicate EU sanctions,” Schneider-Ammann said, recalling that Switzerland presides in the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) this year.

Cameron echoes Dr Strangelove’s plea for NATO

NATO needs a huge military build-up in eastern Europe’s “front line states”, the British Prime Minister wrote in a letter to the alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and the 27 other NATO country leaders.

Russia is the enemy and NATO must rethink its long-term relationship with Russia and strengthen the alliance’s ability to respond quickly to the threat, David Cameron declared on Saturday.

Cameron’s plea comes as senior British military personnel in June suggested that Britain’s defence spending would soon fall below Nato’s target of 2 per cent of gross domestic product.

Only four countries spend two percent of gross domestic product on NATO defence, signalling little enthusiasm for Cameron’s cause.

“In 2014, the world is more unpredictable than ever and we meet at another pivotal moment in the history of the alliance,” Cameron wrote.

Britain and the US have ripped up the rulebook of international law with their illegal and aggressive destabilisation of Ukraine, but Cameron nevertheless aimed his rant solely at “Russian aggression”.

Britain is being accused moreover of having committed war crimes in Iraq and Libya with NATO’s blessing by various members of Britain’s parliament.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu called for Tony Blair to be treated as other alleged war criminals earlier and be tried at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Cameron has also drawn fierce criticism because of his support for Israel’s attacks on Palestinians, qualifying as war crimes some legal specialists say.

His latest campaign against Russia suggests a need to shift the spotlight from the mounting tide against neo-British imperialist tendencies: “To the south, an arc of instability spreads from north Africa and the Sahel, to Syria, Iraq and the wider Middle East.

Cameron continued sternly: “So we must use the [coming Nato] summit [at the Celtic Manor resort near Newport] to agree how NATO should adapt to respond to and deter such threats [as Russia]; and to ensure the continued collective defence of all its members.”

He added that NATO had to address “the risks and challenges posed by failed states, regional conflicts, terrorism and cyber-attacks”.

Cameron’s drive towards war for Europe comes after what Downing Street insiders describe as the prime minister’s unusually animated response to the downing of a Malaysian airliner.

Number 10 insiders told the FT the “Ukraine crisis has signalled to the prime minister that Russia is no longer a lucrative potential export market” after Russia provided the international community with detailed data on the crash.

The British and Americans are increasingly frustrated as they have not managed to fully incriminate Russia for what they themselves describe as a “mistaken” missile attack on flight MH17.

Cameron’s comments echo a proposal by Nato’s Europe commander, General Philip Breedlove, nicknamed “Strangelove” after a character in a Stanley Kubrick film called Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

According to the FT Breedlove advocates stockpiling a base in Poland with enough weapons, ammunition and other supplies to support a rapid deployment of thousands of troops against Russia.

Malaysian Airlines losing $2 million a day

Malaysia Airlines is on the verge of bankruptcy, losing up to $2 million every day, after its flight MH370 disappeared in March and MH17 crashed four months later, Agence France-Presse wrote Sunday citing analysts from a Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.

“The harrowing reality for Malaysia Airlines after MH17 is that if the government doesn’t have an immediate game plan, every day that passes will contribute to its self-destruction and eventual demise,” aviation analyst Shukor Yusof told AFP.

Losing “one to two million US dollars a day,” the airline has “the bandwidth to stay afloat for about six more months based on my estimates of its cash reserves,” Shukor said.

Earlier reports put Malaysia Airlines’ loss in the past 3 year at $1.3 billion.

According to Daily Mail, the airline prepares a range of measures to recover its image. The possible steps include changing the company’s name, creating new air paths, selling the company to a private buyer or filing for bankruptcy with the following renegotiation with the trade unions.

Flight МН370, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people, representing 14 nations, disappeared from radars on March 8. Months of search operations in the Indian Ocean have failed to locate the plane’s remains.

The MH17 Boeing crashed in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Region on July 17, killing all 298 people on board, mostly Dutch citizens.

Source: RIA Novosti

Joe Biden’s son, oligarch fingered in MH17 crash

NATO held an exercise code named «BREEZE 2014» that ended in Black Sea. The exercise, which included the use of electronic warfare and electronic intelligence aircraft such as the Boeing EA-18G Growler and the Boeing E3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), coincided with the shootdown of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine, some 40 miles from the Russian border.

NATO ships and aircraft had the Donetsk and Lugansk regions under total radar and electronic surveillance.

MH-17 was shot down over a region where Russian-speaking separatist forces have been battling against the alliance of the Ukrainian armed forces and a private mercenary force answerable to a Ukrainian-Israeli billionaire oligarch.

About 200 U.S. Army personnel normally assigned to bases in Germany were in Ukraine during the time of the MH-17 fly-over. They were participating in NATO exercise RAPID TRIDENT II. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense led the exercise.

BREEZE included the AEGIS-class guided missile cruiser USS Vela Gulf. AEGIS cruisers’ AN/SPY 1 radar has the ability to track all aircraft over a large region.

The USS Vela Gulf was able to track Malaysian Airlines 17 over the Black Sea and any missiles fired at the plane. U.S. AWACS electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft were also flying over the Black Sea region at the time of the MH-17 flyover of Ukraine. Growler aircraft have the capability to jam radar systems in all surface-to-air threats.

The announcement of U.S. BREEZE and RAPID TRIDENT II military maneuvers came on May 21, 2014, and were announced on the website operated by Vice President Joe Biden’s office. Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is a newly-named director of the Ukrainian natural gas and oil company Burisma Holdings, Ltd., owned by Kolomoisky, an Ukrainian-Israeli.

Kolomoisky has raised his own private mercenary army, and some say they even own the BUK missiles allegedly used in the shootdown of MH-17. Kolomoisky is the Governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast in eastern Ukraine.

Burisma is part of Kolomoisky’s large umbrella corporation called Privat Group. He is estimated to be the second-richest person in Ukraine, also has strong connections inside Kiev’s Borispol International Airport, where it has been reported that Ukrainian Interior Ministry troops stormed the air traffic control tower shortly before MH-17 was shot down.

A Spanish air traffic controller, who possessed knowledge of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s involvement in the shootdown of MH-17, has reportedly had his life threatened. The Spanish controller, identified only as «Carlos,» understood that the shootdown of MH-17 was carried out by supporters of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. Kolomoisky is a political ally of both Tymoshenko and Avakov.

Kolomoisky’s forces are armed with advanced weaponry, obtained both from Ukrainian weapons inventories and from purchases on the black market. Kolomoisky’s forces, comprising Ukrainian regular military personnel; neo-Nazi units from west Ukraine, and foreign mercenaries, including Georgians, Romanians, and mercenaries from Sweden and Germany.

His troops were also responsible for the deadly May 1 fire-bombing of the trade union building in Odessa and burning people alive inside the Mariupol Police Station on May 9.

Georgians who serve in Kolomoisky’s Army have reportedly been trained in the use of BUK missile systems previously sold by Ukraine to Georgia under the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili. Kolomoisky has utilized ex-President Saakashvili’s «consulting services» in Dnipropetrovsk in the military and political campaign against the breakaway people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Kolomoisky chooses to «command» his army from the safety of Switzerland.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Kolomoyskyi will bear responsibility for their crimes, Russian Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin said Thursday.

“Avakov and Kolomoyskyi aren’t going anywhere. Sooner or later they will be held accountable for their criminal responsibility according to the norms of international law,” Bastrykin said.

As events in Ukraine continue to unravel, Russia is launching criminal cases against both individuals. The Russian Investigative Committee identified 2,700 victims in the criminal cases in the Ukrainian crisis, accusing Avakov and Kolomoyskyi of organizing unlawful massacres.

The testimonies came shortly after Russia issued arrest warrants for Avakov and Kolomoyskyi on charges of organizing murders and abductions, using banned means and methods of warfare, and preventing journalists from entering in the country.

Russian courts sentenced both Avakov and Kolomoyskyi in absentia in early July with the decision driven by the threat the two pose to regional security.

The shooting down of MH-17 drew the attention of the world’s media away from a ground invasion of Gaza.

MH17 black boxes to Britain

Malaysian officials passed the black boxes from MH17 flight over to Dutch investigators five days after the Boeing 777 crash in eastern Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday citing the government of the Netherlands.

«The black boxes from flight MH17 have been handed over by Malaysian experts to the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) that is leading the international investigation,” the Dutch foreign ministry said in a statement, according to AFP.

Earlier media reports suggested the flight recorders would be taken to a British laboratory in Farnborough for local experts’ examination.

British Prime Minister David Cameron later wrote in his Twitter that the United Kingdom “agreed Dutch request for air accident investigators at Farnborough to retrieve data from MH17 black boxes for international analysis.”

On Monday, the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic handed over two flight data recorders recovered from the site of the plane crash to Malaysian representatives under the agreement that the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) would have access to the black boxes.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, including 193 Dutch citizens.

Ukrainian authorities place the blame the independence supporters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic for shooting down the plane with a missile, while the militia forces say they did not have the missiles to shoot a target flying at 33,000 feet.

Source: Itar-Tass

Senior US intel finds no evidence of Russian involvement in MH17

Senior US intelligence officials say they have no evidence of Russian government involvement in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

They say the passenger jet was likely felled by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and that Russia “created the conditions” for the downing by arming the separatists, AP reported.

The officials briefed reporters Tuesday under ground rules that their names not be used in discussing intelligence related to last week’s air disaster, which killed 298 people.

They said they did not know if any Russians were present at the missile launch, and they wouldn’t say that the missile crew was trained in Russia.

A senior official said the most likely explanation was the plane was shot down by mistake.

The officials declined to provide more details on the satellites and other sophisticated sensors that enabled them to trace the path of the missile, citing concerns about compromising secret US capabilities.

They spoke condition of anonymity during a briefing arranged for reporters in Washington. Their secrecy was in stark contrast to Russian briefs by responsible official figures who provided technical data for public scrutiny.

The Russian military has presented information that a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter had been gaining altitude in the direction of the Malaysian Boeing prior to the catastrophe.

According to military monitoring data outlined by chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Andrey Kartopolov along with chief of the Air Force Main Staff Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev this week, Russia is concerned about a number of unanswered questions surrounding the downing of the jet.

The American spooks said they have ruled out the possibility that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the attack. They confirmed however that they were still toying with “scenario’s” and not facts.

“That is not a plausible scenario,” said one senior U.S. official, who noted that American intelligence agencies have confirmed that Ukraine had no anti-aircraft missile system within range of the Malaysian flight at the time it was struck.

They did not elaborate on pro-Western and pro-Ukranian rogue elements in the area.

Via WaPo,

Senior U.S. intelligence officials cited sensors that traced the path of the missile, shrapnel markings on the downed aircraft, voiceprint analysis of separatists claiming credit for the strike, and a flood of photos and other data from social media sites.

The officials also for the first time identified a sprawling Russian military installation near the city of Rostov as the main conduit of Russian support to separatists in Ukraine, describing it as a hub of training and weapons that has expanded dramatically over the past month. The officials said that tanks, rocket launchers and other arms have continued to flow into Ukraine.

They gave no evidence to back up these claims, however. The officials also expressed exasperation that their attempts to influence public opinion lacked some credibility.

“We are seeing a full-court press by the Russian government to instruct affiliated or friendly elements to manipulate the media environment to spread Russia’s version of the story,” the official said.

The U.S. officials said they have confirmed the authenticity of some of those recordings, including one in which the self-proclaimed defense minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Igor Strelkov, claimed responsibility for shooting down a military transport plane at the time the Malaysian aircraft was struck.

Analysis comparing that audio clip to other confirmed recordings of Strelkov’s voice “confirmed these were authentic conversations,” one of the officials said.

“If you listen to Youtube you get that: ‘we’re finding civilians,’” a senior U.S. intelligence official said. For that reason, the official said, “the most plausible explanation to me is [it was] a mistake.”

On Monday State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf was asked whether the US could back up claims that “common sense” and no reliable data indicated Ukrainian militia had shot down the Malaysian Airlines plane, along with “evidence” provided by social media.

Harf responded that there was a “host of information” gathered by US intelligence on the incident, but that they “needed to get all the facts”.

“I certainly am blaming the Russians for the pro-Russian separatists’ behavior in general, but we need to get all the facts about this specific incident. We don’t – I don’t want to go out there and put culpability on anyone until we have all of those facts,” Harf told journalists.

Thus, despite claims that the media would be presented with unclassified evidence from US intelligence sources, the spooks mostly reiterated earlier claims based on social media posts and unverified audio and video recordings published by Ukrainian government.

Ukranian tape fingering rebels a fake

A tape posted by Ukrainian security services in the Internet and allegedly recording a talk between self-defense fighters about the destruction of a Malaysian airliner is a fake, experts said on Sunday.

A group of experts studied the tape and came to the conclusion that it was made up of numerous unrelated recordings.

The tape’s second fragment consists of three pieces but was presented as a single audio recording. However, a spectral and time analysis has showed that the dialog was cut into pieces and then assembled. Short pauses in the tape are very indicative: the audio file has preserved time marks which show that the dialog was assembled from various episodes, the expert said.

The tape’s linguistic analysis also shows that those who made the faked tape clearly didn’t have enough material and time, the expert told Itar-Tass.

That is why, speech fragments hardly correlate with each other in terms of their sense and the spectral picture of audio materials also differs, the expert said.

But the most indicative moment is that the audio tape clearly shows that it was created almost a day before the airliner crash, the expert said.

The intercepted phone conversations released by Ukraine’s security service of pro-Russian rebels discussing how they shot down Malaysian airliner MH17 are “genuine”, the US embassy in Kiev had said on Sunday.

The recordings that Ukraine’s SBU security agency released on Thursday of what it claimed were phone talks involving rebels and a Russian military intelligence officer admitting that they had hit the passenger jet after mistaking it for a military aircraft.

The recordings were presented as key evidence to back up Kiev’s claims that rebels downed the jet while the separatists accused Ukraine’s army of being responsible, AFP reported.

“Audio data provided to the press by the Ukrainian security service was evaluated by Intelligence Community analysts who confirmed these were authentic conversations between known separatist leaders,” the US embassy in Ukraine said in a statement.

In one of the recordings a rebel commander nicknamed the “Major” says rebels shot down the plane and tells a disbelieving comrade that the jet is “100 percent a civilian aircraft.”

International experts have still not arrived at MH17 crash scene

The international community has been accusing the anti-Kiev forces on the ground of mishandling bodies and evidence at the crash site.

A day earlier a spokesperson from the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Aleksandr Borodai, accused the international community of lacking enthusiasm to investigate the plane crash.

The Dutch foreign minister said his country was “furious” to hear bodies were being “dragged around.” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott described the crash site in the territory controlled by anti-Kiev forces as “absolutely chaotic.”

Borodai explained all of the actions undertaken at the site of the crash were dictated by urgent humanitarian need to take care of the decomposing bodies.

The bodies of 196 MH17 crash victims have been placed inside refrigerated train carriages, according to the leadership of DPR, with international experts still not at the crash scene.

The DPR once again said it was waiting for the international experts to come and said it guaranteed their security, but wanted the Kiev authorities to agree to a ceasefire in turn, according to statement by DPR’s deputy PM, Andrey Purgin.

“We declare that we guarantee security of international experts at the site of the tragedy if Kiev agrees to a ceasefire,” the statement reads as cited by RIA Novosti. “We call on Kiev to immediately sign this agreement with DPR at least for the period of time while experts are going to work at the site of the plane crash.”

Meanwhile, foreign journalists got to a station where a train with the dead bodies stood. Their tweets from the site made many internet users wonder why journalists were able to make it to the crash scene, but experts could not.

The carriages at the Torez station were reportedly examined by the OSCE observers, who said there were 196 bodies inside.

That has not been confirmed by Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine, who said his team had actually seen body bags in the train carriages but were unable to count them, Reuters reports.

Representatives of the special mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine do have access to the crash site of a Malaysian Boeing-777 in eastern Ukraine, a representative of the mission, Michael Bochurkiv, told Itar-Tass on Sunday.

Earlier, the U.S. Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki expressed concern over the alleged failure of OSCE observers to reach the crash site.

“This is an element of information war against us,” Borodai said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio station, noting that “Fourteen OSCE observers have been working at the airliner’s crash site already for three days. In fact, on the first day they faced some restrictions in their movement. But we explained this by a very simple fact: we are responsible for their security.

“The air disaster area is very big and exceeds more than ten square metres,” Borodai added, noting that “When they entered the zone, which is precisely in sight of Ukrainian machine guns, patrolmen stopped them [OSCE observers]. They proposed to them [OSCE observers] not to go there for one simple reason that if they had come under Ukrainian machine gun fire, responsibility would be shouldered on us.”

Source: RT/Itar-Tass