There are good reasons to believe that the decision to supply the Buk anti-aircraft missile system to the DPR militants was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This conclusion was made by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), writes “European Truth”.
The Panel has published the results of an investigation into those responsible in the Russian Federation for the downing of Flight MH17 by a Buk missile.
In recorded phone calls, Russian officials say the decision to provide military support is up to the president. The decision is even delayed for a week “because there is only one who makes the decision… the man who is now at the summit in France.” At this time, on June 5 and 6, 2014, President Putin was in France to celebrate the Allied Landing Day during World War II.
“There is concrete information that the request of the separatists was transmitted to the president, and that this request was granted. It is not known whether the Buk system is mentioned in the request. A little later, heavier air defense systems appear, including the Buk, from which shot down MH17. Although we are talking about strong evidence, the high bar for complete and conclusive evidence has not been reached. In addition, the president enjoys immunity as head of state,” the report says.
The JIT shared its findings with the next of kin of 298 victims and released a report. While a lot of new information has been uncovered about the various individuals involved, the evidence is currently not specific enough to lead to new prosecutions.
As a reminder, the District Court of The Hague November 17, 2022 in absentia sentenced to life imprisonment Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko for their role in shooting down the Malaysian airliner MH17 over the Donbass and instructed to secure their arrest. The court ruled that they must pay more than 16 million euros in compensation to the relatives of the victims.
Meanwhile, the fourth defendant, Oleg Pulatov, was found not guilty by the court, despite the fact that he was Girkin’s deputy and passed instructions to other defendants on the evacuation of the Buk system.
The Hague Court also held that Russia controlled the “DPR” during the downing of MH17.
