But if the revelations were not surprising, neither was the Russian reaction.

The foreign ministry called it proof of “bias and political motivation.” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, insisted that because the report is “preliminary” it so far proves nothing. The defence ministry flatly denied sending any of its rocket launchers across the border.

Those are positions that Moscow and the separatists of the Donetsk People’s Republic have maintained from the beginning.

The message is clear: it wasn’t our missile.

As the JIT made clear, the question of the Russian state or Russian citizens is yet to be closed. No government or individual has yet been named as responsible.

But if Russian officials do know more than they are letting on, it is not surprising that they would be reluctant to say so.

Historically, there are some crimes – or blunders – that governments find nearly impossible to own up to.

In the case of MH17, there are several close parallels.

They are Korean Airlines 007, shot down by Soviet jets in 1983; Iran Air 655, shot down by an American missile cruiser in 1988; and Siberian Airlines 1812, shot down by a Ukrainian missile in 2001.

In each case, the governments involved resisted admitting culpability for years.

Although the Americans and the Ukrainians eventually ended up paying compensation, they did so on the express condition that it did not amount to an admission of responsibility.

The Soviet Union never paid compensation, and it was only after the Soviet collapse that Boris Yeltsin released details of the flight 007 incident.

And, of course, it took Muammar Gadhafi’s Libya 15 years to admit responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 - the case most frequently cited by MH17 families and experts as a precedent.

If those examples are any guide, it will take many years, or a change of government – and possibly both – before Russia reveals exactly how much it knows about MH17.