Russia link to MH17

Media alliance names Moscow official as person of interest

A HIGH-RANKING Russian espionage chief is reportedly a person of interest in the MH17 disaster investigation.

The BBC, Russia’s The Insider and Dutch-based news outlet Bellingcat are reporting that FSB Colonel General Andrey Ivanovich Burlaka is connected to the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight 17, which killed all 298 people aboard, on July 17, 2014.

The international Joint Investigation Team, which includes Australia, made a public call to identify a Russian official known by the pseudonym Vladimir Ivanovich in November.

The three news organisations used extensive searches of phone records, travel data and voice-comparison technology to establish that the Russian official is Colonel Gen

Burlaka, the FSB Border Service’s chief of operational staff.

Comment has been sought from the JIT and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service.

The JIT said last year that a then-unidentified official authorised weapons movements across the Ukraine-Russia border and would have had oversight of the Buk-TELAR missile launcher used to down the civilian airliner. The BBC reported that Burlaka is two rungs below FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov, who reports directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The broadcaster also said that after 2014, then Lieutenant General Burlaka received a Hero of the Russian Federation title, the highest honour of the country, and was promoted to general colonel.

Four men have been charged with murder and the destruction of a civilian airline by a Dutch court. They are Russians Oleg Pulatov, Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko.

Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that Dubinsky told friend and Ukrainian militia leader Sergei Tiunov in September 2014 that he was not responsible for the MH17 tragedy and that: “The bastards from Moscow did it!”