Kremlin spokesman said Russia \u201ccould not accept\u201d the results of the investigation since it took no part in the process
\n MOSCOW
\nThe Kremlin dismissed on Thursday the findings of international prosecutors investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) who said they had found \u201cstrong indications\u201d of Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s involvement in the incident.
\nThe prosecutors said on Wednesday at The Hague they had found \u201cstrong indications\u201d that Putin had approved the use of Russian BUK missile systems that were used to shoot down the plane over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
\nIn Moscow\u2019s first reaction to their claim, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia \u201ccould not accept\u201d the results of the investigation since it took no part in the process. He also said the investigators had not publicly presented supported evidence.
\nMH17 was shot down by a Russian BUK missile system as it flew over eastern Ukraine from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew, including 196 Dutch citizens.
\nAt the time, Russian-backed separatists were fighting Ukrainian forces for control of the eastern Donbas region.
\nProsecutors cited intercepted phone calls for their findings, but said evidence of the direct involvement of Putin – or other Russian officials – was not conclusive enough to pursue a criminal conviction, and halted their probe.
\nRussia has repeatedly denied state involvement in the downing of MH17. Peskov on Thursday dismissed the evidence which had been presented by investigators.
\n\u201cWe know that a recording of a supposed phone call was published … in which not a single word is said about weapons. Even assuming that this conversation is real … there is not one word about weapons. Nobody has published anything else, so it\u2019s impossible to say anything,\u201d Peskov told reporters.
\nAsked specifically about the claim that Putin approved the delivery of BUK missile systems to pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine, Peskov said: \u201cRussia did not take part in this investigation, so we cannot accept these results – especially since no basis for these statements has been made public.\u201d
\nFollowing the plane\u2019s destruction, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Ukraine and Malaysia set up a joint investigation team to establish who was responsible and to assemble evidence for criminal prosecutions.
\nIn November, a Dutch court convicted two former Russian intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader of murder for helping arrange the missile system used to shoot the plane down. The men, who were tried in absentia, remain at large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kremlin spokesman said Russia \u201ccould not accept\u201d the results of the investigation since it took no part in the process MOSCOW The Kremlin dismissed on Thursday the findings of international prosecutors investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) who said they had found \u201cstrong indications\u201d of Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s involvement in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-312763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n