From the editor
The trial of four absent defendants for their role in the shooting down of MH17 has got into the substance of the case at the District Court of The Hague. The whole trial, which started last year, is being livestreamed with simultaneous English translation. This week the judges took participants and viewers through the evidence that has been collected by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in the nearly seven years since the attack that killed 298 people on July 17, 2014.
The story that has emerged is one of rigorous scientific and forensic analysis on the part of investigators, who concluded that MH17 was shot down with a Russian Buk, and absurd denials by the Russian government, which used Photoshop to edit satellite images and paid a convicted Spanish fraudster in Romania to pretend to be a witness known as “Carlos the air traffic controller”. When investigators asked Russian officials for information about the whereabouts of the Buk system that was identified as having been used to shoot down the plane, their response was that there was no need to answer any questions because videos of the Buk were fake. The Netherlands Forensic Institute and Royal Military Academy painstakingly verified videos and images from a large number of internet sources and witnesses, and found no evidence of manipulation.
The fragmentation pattern of damage to MH17 showed it was struck by a missile from outside
Fragments of the Buk missile found at the crash site – some removed from bodies of the victims and other from parts of the aircraft – were compared with other Buks that were dismantled by investigators, and found to be identical to parts of a Buk 9M38M1 system manufactured in 1986 by Russia’s Almaz-Antey. The court was shown a photograph of Vladimir Putin standing in front of a similar system during a visit to a military base. The Buk used in the attack was transported from the base of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade in Kursk in late June 2014 to the Ukrainian border and then to the launch site in a field near the town of Pervomaiske on the night of July 16.
In addition to the photos, videos, physical evidence and testimony of dozens of witnesses who saw the Buk being transported and launched, the court also has numerous recordings of intercepted phone calls between the defendants and other members of the Russian-controlled forces, as well as the Kremlin-installed leader of occupied Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, who responded to frantic requests from defendant Igor Girkin for more military support from Russia, including air defence systems. Girkin, a Russian reserve colonel, was the commander of the Donbass forces.
In a conversation between defendants Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov on July 16, Dubinsky said “Our only hope is a Buk” because their side had suffered heavy losses from Ukrainian aerial bombardment. At first there was “euphoria” when MH17 was shot down because it was thought to be a Ukrainain An-26 transport plane, the court heard, but the Russian-backed forces were “astonished” when they found out a civilian plane had crashed. Intercepted calls show the defendants rapidly changed their story to claim at first that the Buk had fired at a Ukrainian fighter jet that shot down MH17. No Ukrainian fighter jet was found to have been in the vicinity at the time. Later the defendants denied there was ever a Buk in the “Donetsk People’s Republic”. Calls show how they scrambled to evacuate the Buk back to Russia as OSCE investigators arrived.
With less than a week to go before Joe Biden meets Putin in Geneva, this is an ideal time to look again at the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine and their ongoing consequences. The MH17 trial should be on the agenda at the summit and Biden should demand that Russia acknowledges the truth and send the defendants to The Hague in person. The lying is making the ordeal of the victims’ relatives even worse than it would otherwise have been, and Putin should not be allowed to mock justice.
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Navalny’s organisations banned as “extremist”
A Moscow court ruled at about 11 pm on Wednesday after a hearing held in secret that Alexei Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption, Foundation for Defending Citizens’ Rights and regional offices should be banned as “extremist”, satisfying a prosecutor’s request. Now anyone associated with these organisations could be jailed for up to six years, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses who are frequently jailed in Russia for participating in an “extremist group”. The court ruled that the organisations’ property would be divided up among creditors and anything left would go to the state. One of the defence lawyers, Ivan Pavlov, is himself being prosecuted for allegedly disclosing confidential information and has been banned from using the internet while awaiting trial. The judge rejected defence lawyers’ request for Navalny to participate in the case, saying that it didn’t affect his interests.
Navalny was recently transferred back to the IK-2 prison in Pokrov, Vladimir Oblast, from another prison where he was in hospital after his hunger strike. His team published a letter from him on Instagram that he had written in the event that his organisations were banned. “We are a group of people who unite and organise those citizens of Russia who are against corruption and for honest courts and equality before the law,” he wrote. “There are millions of those. You are those people. We still exist, and we aren’t going anywhere.” Rather than stopping their activities as ordered, his Foundation for Fighting Corruption has also published a new video about his poisoning last August.
Navalny’s daughter Dasha has accepted the 2021 Moral Courage Award on his behalf during the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Dasha recorded a video message in English in which she said her dad had told her not to screw up her first public appearance. She recalled police searching their home when she was 10 and her brother was three years old, and trying to hide a laptop under her clothes. “I would like to repeat something my dad once said,” she concluded. “Russia deserves to be free and happy. And it will be. And I also firmly believe that.”
Putin denies state is repressive
Vladimir Putin made an in-person appearance at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and was asked by the moderator about comments he made in 1996 about how people’s mentality in Russia could make them seek a strong hand, but that strong hand would eventually strangle them. Putin acted as if he didn’t remember the comments and then said, “I don’t feel it,” to which the moderator asked, “We’re not being strangled?” and Putin said “No.” The moderator pointed out that there is currently a record number of businesspeople in Moscow jails and also mentioned the case of Georgy Popov, a businessman in the Komi Republic who has been in jail for four years waiting for a verdict in his case.
In a reference to the Ryanair incident in Minsk, Putin was asked if he would try to divert a plane flying from Thailand to London if there was a person on board who was wanted in Russia. “I won’t say,” he replied. Oligarch Oleg Deripaska also commented on the latest wave of repressions in Russia at the forum, saying that the opposition had “undermined itself” and “we can get on with things now” for the next 10 years. He predicted that poverty could be defeated in Russia in a decade, without explaining how this would be achieved.
Dmitri Gudkov flees Russia
Former opposition MP Dmitri Gudkov has left Russia for Ukraine after he was detained and held in custody for 48 hours. He said that his father Gennady – also a former MP – had been told by people in the Presidential Administration that Dmitri would be jailed, or something worse might happen to him. Several properties belonging to the Gudkovs and their associates and relatives have been searched. Dmitri Gudkov had been considering running for the Duma again in September as a member of the liberal Yabloko party.
Coronavirus cases increasing fast
Russia is starting to show signs of an upsurge in coronavirus cases in its official daily numbers, reporting 12,505 new cases today, including 5,853 in Moscow, and 396 deaths – the highest numbers since February 22. Russia has fully vaccinated just 9.35 percent of its population (13.65 million people), and partially vaccinated another 2.95 percent (4.3 million people). The Alliance of Doctors, whose activities have been restricted as it is deemed a “foreign agent”, has said that some healthcare reporters have reported being told they must have mandatory vaccinations. There has also been discussion about bringing vaccinations to people’s workplaces, where it would be difficult for them to say no. A recent crowded music awards event in Moscow is being investigated for possible “propaganda of non-traditional relations,” but not for any violations of Covid regulations.
The sister of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Larisa Shoigu, who was a United Russia MP, has died from a stroke while suffering from coronavirus at the age of 68. Consultant to The Guardian newspaper Ruben Sergeyev has died from coronavirus in Moscow at the age of 65. And rapper T-Killah (Alexander Tarasov), 32, has been hospitalised in Moscow with coronavirus and pneumonia. In Ryazan three coronavirus patients died in hospital when a Chinese-made ventilator exploded, and eight more people sustained severe burns. Two explosions of Russian-made ventilators last year in Moscow and St. Petersburg killed six patients. St. Petersburg has restricted attendance at cultural events to 3,000 and at sporting events to 25,000 ahead of Euro 2020 football matches that were moved to the city from Dublin.
Investigation shows poet likely poisoned
Bellingcat has published an investigation showing that well-known satirical poet and Putin critic Dmitri Bykov was being tailed by operatives from the same FSB unit that poisoned Alexei Navalny during a tour of Siberia in April 2019 when Bykov became ill and fell into a coma. Bykov began vomiting uncontrollably on a flight from Yekaterinburg to Ufa and was transported to Moscow for treatment. He was in a coma for five days. Doctors could not reach a conclusion about the cause of his condition.
Murderer of gay man gets “leniency”
Anton Berezhnoy, who stabbed a gay man to death in Moscow’s Kursk train station in summer 2019, has been sentenced to nine years in prison after jurors decided that he “deserved leniency”. Berezhnoy attacked Roman Yedalov and Yevgeny Yefimov, and Yedalov died from his injuries. During the attack Berezhnoy shouted insults about gays. In February 2020 a jury found Berezhnoy not guilty of murder after he claimed that Yedalov “fell on the knife”, and sentenced him to just under two years in prison for assault. Last September the Moscow city court overturned the not guilty verdict. On June 1 Berezhnoy escaped during a hearing and on June 4 he was recaptured.
Blogger charged with justifying terrorism
St. Petersburg blogger Yuri Khovansky, 31, who has over 4 million subscribers to his YouTube channel and is an aide to an MP in Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s LDPR party, has been jailed ahead of trial on a charge of justifying terrorism because of a song he sang last year about the 2002 Moscow theatre siege, praising Chechens for killing Russian children. Khovansky was shown in a video admitting his guilt and expressing remorse. Another well-known blogger, Dmitri Larin, was also summoned for questioning in the case. Khovansky said he didn’t mean for the song to be public and authorities are looking for the person who uploaded it to YouTube.
Servicewoman sentenced for treason
Tatiana Kuzmenko, who is serving in the Russian military, has been convicted of treason and sentenced to eight years in prison. Her sentence will be postponed for two years until her child reaches the age of 14. Kuzmenko was arrested last year and accused of giving information to Ukrainian military intelligence in 2017-18. Her case was deemed “top secret” and no other details were revealed.
Chechen dissident convicted after deportation from France
Chechen dissident Magomed Gadaev, who fled to Europe in 2010 and gave evidence about abductions, torture and murder in his home region, has been sentenced to 18 months in an exile colony after being deported back to Chechnya from France in April. He was charged with possession of a weapon that was allegedly found on the day he was put on a plane from France to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.