Believe Russia, Not Kiev/U.S.

With the Kiev junta dangerously upping the ante on Flight 17, saying that it can prove that Russia supplied the antiaircraft missile battery that was used to destroy the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, Russia fired back. David Herszenhorn reports that,

In Russia on Saturday, the Kremlin announced that President Vladimir V. Putin had spoken by telephone with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, about both the airliner investigation and the need to pursue a cease-fire in southeastern Ukraine.

The two leaders agreed to the need for a “thorough and objective investigation of all the circumstances of the incident,” according to a brief statement on the Kremlin website. 

The Russian government maintained that the Ukrainian military could possibly have shot down the aircraft. The deputy minister of defense, Anatoly I. Antonov, called on Ukraine to hand over all the documents related to its surface-to-air missile systems to the international investigators — once such an inquiry was organized. 

Appearing on the state-run Rossiya 24 satellite, Mr. Antonov said that the rush to blame Russia or the militiamen in southeastern Ukraine smacked of the “information war” that Ukraine and its Western allies had been waging for months. He said that he wanted to know why the Ukraine military deployed its Russian-made SA-11 Buk antiaircraft system in the east of the country since the insurgents have no air force. 

“Are Ukrainian armed forces officials ready to provide international experts with the documents about the number of the air-to-air missiles and surface-to-air missiles that are available for its anti-aircraft-missile systems?” the deputy minister said. “This is a very important question that will allow us to determine what systems were used against the Malaysian Boeing.” 

At a news conference in Washington on Friday, Rear Admiral John F. Kirby said that it would have been difficult for the separatists to have fired the SA-11 without Russian help.

So this is what we know: The narrative appears to be cohering around the idea that Novorossiyan forces could not have brought down Flight 17 without direct Russian assistance; this coming from no less than the Pentagon spokesman. The Novorossiyans deny having anything to do with it. Residents from the area where Flight 17 crashed laugh at the idea of Novorossiyan forces being able to down the passenger jet.

Basically what we have here is Kiev/U.S. saying the Russians did it, and the Russians saying, No we did not. Who do you believe? I think the answer to that is very easy. I believe the Russians. The Russians came up with a peaceful solution to bail Obama out of his disastrous decision to bomb Syria. The Russians saved his presidency, something that they are probably regretting right now. Also -- remember! -- Russia has been the nation at the forefront of calling for negotiations between Kiev and Novorrosiya. Kiev has insisted on unconditional surrender.

Will the fascists in Kiev be able to account for all their antiaircraft missiles?