Kremlin: Russia will not accept responsibility for MH17 air disaster
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, stated that during the course of future consultations regarding the investigation of the MH17 flight crash in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Russia does not intend to admit its responsibility for the downing of the aircraft.
According to her, the focus of the consultations that are soon to be held in Vienna will not be Russia's recognition of the legal responsibility for the downing of the aircraft.
According to the official comment of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow, among other things, wants explanations about how the data provided by Russia is used and taken into account during the investigation.
Earlier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Stef (Stephanus) Blok, stated that diplomatic contacts with Russia aimed at initiating formal negotiations on the “MH17 case” are held in a “positive atmosphere”.
At the same time, in December, the media, referring to Blok’s letter to the parliament, reported that the Netherlands was not satisfied with the reaction of the Russian Federation in the case of the crash of the Malaysian Airlines airliner and was studying the possibility of referring this case to an international court. The Netherlands and Australia asked Russia to formally contact the authorities of these countries through diplomatic channels to discuss its responsibility in the interests of justice for the victims and their relatives.
The Malaysian Airlines Boeing-777, which operated the MH17 flight from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), was shot down in the skies over Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. All 298 people on board died. An international investigation established that the missile, which shot down the airliner, was fired from the territory controlled by the militants, and the BUK missile launcher from which it was fired was imported from Russia.