“This investigation has no relation to law, it’s purely a political case. In any political case, finding the truth is not the focus. The most important thing is to build an argument against the target of the political hit,” Lieutenant-General (ret.) Evgeny Buzhinsky, Ph.D. in Military Sciences and Chairman of PIR Center told valdaiclub.com, commenting on the MH17 report released on September 28.
“I have no doubt that the Americans have a complete picture of the hard evidence in this incident. It has been established that when the plane was shot down, there were two AWACS [Airborne Warning and Control Systems] aircraft in the area, as well as an American reconnaissance satellite. The Americans know who shot down the Boeing,” Buzhinsky said.
It is known that much of the data on the incident has not been made public. The Joint International Criminal Investigation Team, chaired by the Netherlands Public Prosecutor’s Office said that the data is intelligence information, the source of which cannot be revealed because it may impair the investigation process.
“But when the topic at hand is data from technical reconnaissance, what can the source be, a reconnaissance satellite? The commission refers to smartphone photos of countless witnesses. This is amusing for any specialist,” Buzhinsky atted.
At the same time, Russia took unprecedented steps to assist the investigation.
“We gave them primary data from the tracking radar, declassified secret Buk documentation. And what then? Nothing. They said ‘it is being studied’ and ‘it will be in the investigation team archives’. Which for some reason does not have a Russian representative. Why include one, if the blame is assigned in advance? It would be impossible to not allow a team member to acquaint himself with the data that the Americans and Ukrainians provided,” Buzhinsky said, adding that a Russian representative would have been out of place.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova recently said that Russia from the very start “suggested working together and only drawing upon facts,” but that international investigators excluded Russia from full-fledged participation in the investigation.
“It sounds like a bad joke, but Ukraine was at the same time made a full-fledged member of the Joint Investigative Team, giving it the opportunity to falsify evidence and turn the case in its favor,” Zakharova said.
“I think, I’m absolutely certain, that the Boeing was shot down by the Ukrainians, because it was only beneficial to them and the Americans, not us or the militias. Blaming it on militias is a joke. The Buk is not a Kalashnikov rifle; it is a complicated system, which has to be manned by a crew. They by definition cannot have people like that,” Buzhinsky said.
In March 2014, the United States and the European Union, disagreeing with Russia's policy towards Ukraine and Crimea, began to enact personal sanctions against a number of Russian politicians and companies. On July 17, 2014, the US imposed sectoral sanctions against Russia, expecting the same from the EU.
"July 2014. The US demands the introduction of sectoral sanctions. The EU resists, saying, ‘we have just imposed sanctions, there needs to be a reason of some kind’. But nothing happens. And here, suddenly is a huge reason, - a downed Boeing. Sanctions are imposed and an investigation begins," Buzhinsky added.
According to Buzhinsky, the joint investigation team was not designed to begin a serious prosecution of those responsible.
"The Dutch demand $10 million for each deceased. So the country that has been declared guilty will have to pay $3 billion. Ukraine does not have that kind of money and will not in the foreseeable future. Whom it is possible to get it out of? Only Russia," Buzhinsky said.
He recalled that when the United States shot down an Iranian plane in 1988, it did not pay any compensation.
"They have rules of engagement. And when they were examining the situation in their court, they found that the commander [of the American] ship was acting strictly in accordance with the instructions. This was not taken to the international level. Americans conducted their investigation and said: "The commander was right." However, they apologized for having shot down a civilian aircraft," Buzhinsky said.
In recent days, western media, in particular, CNN, wrote that the EU may tighten sanctions against Russia because of the new report on the investigation of the tragedy of the Malaysian Boeing. However, Buzhinsky believes that there will be no consequences, at least not because of the Joint Investigation Team report.
"I think people in Europe are sane. The evidence is absolutely untenable for any unbiased court. Even the German lawyer acting in the interest of German families said that ‘we are not satisfied and do not see any direct evidence.’ It has no prospects in court, and there will be no additional sanctions against Russia. Because of Syria, possibly, but because of the Boeing, no. I think that next week everyone will forget about this report," said the expert.