by

Update April 3, 2018: included information taken from the JIT press release which confirms Russia did not hand over radar data of a second radar station which Russia confirmed detected MH17.

In an interview for Australian TV, Russian ambassador to Australia Grigory Logvinov made a couple of false statements on MH17.

Russia has constantly lied about MH17. In this post I made a summary. I easily came to 12 lies. More lies in this post.

Remember it was Russia who used its veto in the United Nations Security Council to veto a proposal for a tribunal on MH17. Instead, the grieving nations decided to have a court case under Dutch law in the Hague.

Back to the interview of the Russian ambassador by Sky News Political Reporter Samantha Maiden.

The talk about MH17 starts at around 10:00 minutes into the video. Earlier in the interview Grigory Logvinov talks about the murder on the former spy Skripal in England. He denies Russia is involved.

The first question on MH17 is about a recent comment by former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott who said that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s action on MH17 is “not good enough”.

Grigory Logvinov states that Russia “has been nominated the guilty party without any real proof”. Now that is true if he said “without any proof made public”. The Joint Investigation Team in a presentation in September 2016 said it had clear proof a BUK TELAR surface to air missile launcher was brought in from Russia and sent back after the shot down of MH17. Secret Intelligence Service MI6 in a 2017 report stated “Russian military supplied missile launcher that shot down MH17″.

At around 11:22 into the interview Logvinov asks “who benefited from the shot down?”. That is the typical weak response often made by Russian trolls as well. Logvinov forgets a mistake by the crew in the BUK TELAR is the most likely reason for the shotdown. A mistake is perfectly possible. In July 1988 an Iran Air Airbus A300 was shot down by error by a missile launched from a United States navy ship. The crew launching the missile was fully trained and had all the information available. The crew in the BUK TELAR was operating in so-called ‘autonomous mode’ without being connected to a radar station.

Logvinov states Russia would never shot down a civil plane. The shot down of Korean Air Boeing 747 flight 007 was a totally different situation according Logvinov. Mind, on 20 April 1978, Soviet air defense shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 902 (KAL 902) near Murmansk, Soviet Union, after the civilian aircraft violated Soviet airspace and failed to respond to Soviet ground control and interceptors.

At 13:10 Logvinov continues by asaying ” We provided this international investigation with all the data we had on the MH17 crash. They are not analysing that”.

This is a clear lie!

Russia did not provide all the data

First of all, lets see when and what data Russia handed over, and which data it did not hand over.

Two Russian primary radar stations were able to detect MH17. According to statements by Russia one of the radars is technically able to detect a BUK missile. In this blog post I explain all about the Russian radars.

Russia did not hand over the raw primary radar data immediately. This is totally not logical if Russia had nothing to hide. Russia handed over to the Dutch Safety Board a so called ‘at the glass’ recording which is a video file showing what the air traffic controller saw at the moment of the crash. This image has been filtered. So small objects like a BUK missile are not displayed. This is not useable for the investigation.

It took Russia over 2 years to finally hand over the raw primary radar data of the Ust-Donetsk radar station. It did so in a non-common format. Russia handed over the software in Russian language without providing an manual explaining how to use the software. As a result the investigators needed extra time to study the data.

Russia DID NOT hand over the radar data of the second radar station which detected MH17. This 2nd station is located in Baturinskaya (south of Rostov in Russia).

Russia also did not hand over radar data of the requested time frame. JIT requested all radar data in the period from July 14 2014 up to and including 18 July 2014. See the Dutch Public Prosecution Service press release published at April 3, 2018.

However Russia only handed over radar data recorded by a single radar station at July 14, from 16:02 to 16:32

In May 2017, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, wrote in an electronic magazine:

Furthermore, the OM reminded the Russian Federation of remarks that had already been made on behalf of the Ministry of Defence during a press conference on 21 July 2014 and which refer to the presence of a second radar station that had covered the airspace at the crucial moment. This concerns a radar station in Buturinskaya. In a supplementary request for legal assistance, the OM explicitly requested the radar data of this radar station as well. Until today, the OM has not received any response to this request.

In a letter sent in August 2017 addressed to Dutch parliament, Minister Blok states Russia did not yet respond to a legal request for help submitted to Russia in March 2017. Likely this was a request to hand over data of Buturinskaya radar antenna.

Russia initially told DSB that radar data was deleted as the shot down occured outside Russian airspace. Later, Russia found radar data of the Ust Donetsk radar station while doing maintenance. This does not sound as a plausible reason why radar data all of a sudden appears. If Russia was innocent, it would immediately hand over all data.

When asked, JIT spokesman Wim de Bruin at March 16, was not able to tell if this radar data was received or not.

In a press release published by JIT at April 3, 2018, JIT confirms Russia never handed over radar data of the Buturinskaya radar station.

The JIT did analyse data

The other false statement made by Logvinov is about JIT not analysing the data. JIT made public screenshots of radar data which was provided by Russia. JIT made clear in public the data of the Almaz Antey test using a BUK missile is included in the investigation.

Russia did not provide the names of BUK crew

The suspects of the downing of MH17 could have been known if Russia handed over the names of the crew who were inside the BUK TELAR that was seen, photographed and filmed while travelling in Eastern Ukraine at July 17, 2017.

by