Russia denies involvement in MH17 crash

RUSSIA described as déjà vu the latest allegations about its supposed involvement in the crash

in 2014 as it denied that the anti-aircraft missile system that hit the aircraft came from the country.

“This strongly reminds me of the so-called Skripal case, when they said it was ‘highly likely’ that the Russians did it, but the Scotland Yard immediately reported that the investigation was continuing. And it is not over to this day,” said Russian Federation Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, referring to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England.

According to Lavrov, he received a call from Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok informing him about the new developments on the investigation on the 2014 MH17 crash.

The Russian foreign minister said he was told by his Dutch counterpart that there was no doubt that the Buk antiaircraft missile system came from Russia.

The plane was shot down over

in Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board.

A Dutch-led joint investigative team, in its report released recently, stated that the Buk missile that shot down the aircraft over Ukraine came from Russia’s 53rd Antiaircraft Missile Brigade.

“I asked for facts that could prove these allegations. He gave no facts, saying that they want the Russian Federation to help them establish

suspicions,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov maintained that the Russian Federation cooperated with the investigation more than anyone else despite the fact that it had not been invited to join the Joint Investigative Team.

He added that he also reminded the Dutch foreign minister that a specialist from Russia’s Almaz-Antey Concern conducted a live experiment and has provided the detailed data to the Netherlands.

“We have provided a lot of factual information, including primary data from radars that were operating in the Rostov Region on that tragic day,” the Russian foreign minister noted.

Russia is also being accused of being involved in the poisoning of its citizen in England which the government had consistently denied.

“It’s like a déjà vu. If our partners decided to do it again and speculate on this grave human tragedy to achieve their political aims, I’ll leave this on their conscience,” Lavrov said.

He reiterated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s previous statement that the government it ready to cooperate as long as the investigation on the incident would be honest and fair.

“We are still ready to cooperate despite numerous questions that arise in our minds in connection with this situation. The important thing is that this cooperation should be honest and that the information and facts we provide should not be ignored or used selectively. This is probably where the whole problem lies,” he added.