In May, international investigators announced the missile which brought down MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 — killing 298 people — belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Army.

Key points: Malaysian investigators said there was "no conclusive evidence to pinpoint Russia" for MH17 missile

Malaysian investigators said there was "no conclusive evidence to pinpoint Russia" for MH17 missile Bellingcat says its "working hypothesis" is that Russia compromised the Malaysians

Bellingcat says its "working hypothesis" is that Russia compromised the Malaysians Anthony Loke, a member of the Malaysian team, vigorously denied the suggestion

In a press conference broadcast across the world, the Joint Investigation Team insisted the warhead's fingerprint was "so special" that it could only have come from the Russian military.

A week later, however, the ranking member of the team from Malaysia demurred.

"There is no conclusive evidence to pinpoint Russia," Anthony Loke said. And, he added: "Of course, we have to take into consideration our diplomatic relations."

The Malaysian's remarks surprised observers. At a parliamentary hearing in Canberra, foreign affairs legal officer James Larsen was asked whether Russia was directly in the frame for the atrocity.

"Australia believes there is conclusive evidence," he said.

Mr Loke's remarks also caught the attention of Christo Grozev, an investigator with Bellingcat, a London-based reporting website that has recently dragged several of Russia's covert disruptions into the light.

Sorry, this video has expired Investigators confirm MH17 shot down by a Russian Buk missile.

It was a "surprising dissension", he said. Malaysia was the "only country that did not fully endorse the findings of the joint investigation team".

In an interview with the ABC, Mr Grozev said Bellingcat was now actively probing whether Russia had played a role in this public display of disunity.

The team's "working hypothesis", he said, was that the entire Malaysian contingent, or one member of it, had been compromised by Russia's spies.

"I believe they may have done that in Malaysia, look for discrediting information, for what they call kompromat, on politicians, on members of the investigative teams," Mr Grozev said.

"And then they try to use that to get one member of the team to diverge from the common policy on what they are doing."

Mr Loke vigorously denied the suggestion. In a text message, he told the ABC: "I categorically and strongly deny the wild accusations against us."

"I have never been in contact with the Russians. My comments are based on the advice of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Mr Loke said.

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Russian hackers targeted MH17 investigation

Alexander Mishkin (L) and Anatoliy Chepiga (R) used fake names, but Bellingcat discovered their true identities. (Metropolitan Police via AP)

In recent weeks, the Bellingcat group has unearthed the true identities of the two men who UK authorities have publicly declared were agents for Russian military intelligence — the GRU — who attempted to assassinate former spy Sergei Skripal on orders from Moscow.

While they entered the UK on Russian passports which said they were Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, Bellingcat produced passport photographs and other evidence to show they were in fact two high-ranking officers, Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin.

Bellingcat released this photo of Alexander Mishkin earlier in the week. (AP: Bellingcat)

By trawling black-market databases in Russia, and sending reporters to remote towns and villages to question witnesses, Bellingcat also discovered that both men were recipients of Russia's highest military honour — the Hero of the Russian Federation.

Urgent questions were raised about the GRU's global activities last week. At coordinated events at The Hague and in Washington DC, security officials announced the identities of seven alleged GRU officers who had attempted to hack into targets around the world.

Four had been found trying to infiltrate the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which was part-way through an analysis of the nerve agent, Novichok, which had been used in the botched hit-job on Mr Skripal in March. They were expelled from The Netherlands in April.

Sorry, this video has expired UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt says Malaysia was also targeted by Russia.

The US Department of Justice announced indictments against the seven men, and in its public statement, hinted at the GRU's activities in Malaysia.

"Data obtained from at least one item of this equipment confirmed its operational use at multiple locations around the world, including … in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in December 2017," it said.

The UK's ambassador to The Netherlands, Peter Wilson, went further.

"One of the GRU officers who was escorted out of the country by our Dutch colleagues, Evgenii Serebiakov, also conducted malign activity in Malaysia," he said.

"This GRU operation was trying to collect information about the MH17 investigation and targeted Malaysian government institutions including the Attorney-General's office and the Royal Malaysian Police."

Investigators initially said the missile that brought down MH17 was from the Russian military. (Reuters: Maxim Zmeyev)

Russia has flatly denied the veracity of the information released in the past month by the UK Metropolitan Police, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, the Netherlands' Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld and the US Assistant Attorney General John Demers.

They have also dismissed Bellingcat's work as "criminal investigative activity".

There is more of it to come. At a press conference on Tuesday at the House of Commons in London, Bellingcat promised further revelations within weeks.