'What we do know is that it’s not easy to operate one of these SA-11 system,' Rhodes says. W.H.: Still looking for 'direct link'

The Obama administration has not identified a direct link between Russia and the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, but it’s clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government had influence over the separatists who downed the plane, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Tuesday.

“We do think President Putin and the Russian government bears responsibility for the support that they provided to these separatists, the arms they provided to these separatists, the training they provided as well, and the general unstable environment in eastern Ukraine,” Rhodes said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” “There is a direct responsibility there on Russia… and we’re going to continue to pull the thread on this case to determine exactly who we believe fired that missile,” he added.


The administration is still assessing intelligence to reach more detailed and definitive conclusions, Rhodes said.

U.S. intelligence assessments show that an SA-11 missile shot up vertically from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists and hit the passenger jet, Rhodes said, corroborating what senior administration officials told reporters in a briefing Tuesday afternoon.

“We’re still working … to determine whether there was a direct link, whether Russians were on the ground, the degree to which Russians may have trained these separatists,” he said. “What we do know is that it’s not easy to operate one of these SA-11 systems” and that it takes several days if not longer to learn to use one.

Moving forward, the administration is weighing additional sanctions against Russia, something that the European Union is also deliberating and on which it’s expected to take action in the coming days. “The continued support from Russia to the separatists is why we feel like we may need to continue to ratchet up the pressure,” Rhodes said.