The Netherlands took "diplomatic steps" toward Russia as the latter's responses to relevant requests as part of the MH17 crash investigation were insufficient, Dutch Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus said on Wednesday in a statement for the country's parliament
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th June, 2019) The Netherlands took "diplomatic steps" toward Russia as the latter's responses to relevant requests as part of the MH17 crash investigation were insufficient, Dutch Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus said on Wednesday in a statement for the country's parliament.Earlier on Wednesday, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), whose conclusions Russia has called groundless in the past, announced Names of four suspects, three Russians and one Ukrainian. The investigators believe that they were accomplices to delivering a Buk missile system to a launch site in eastern Ukraine and a shot at the Boeing.
"I can inform the House that, at the request of the PPO [Public Prosecutor's Office], diplomatic steps have been taken in respect of the Russian Federation because, according to the PPO, the response by the Russian authorities to requests for legal assistance has been insufficient, incorrect or indeed entirely non-existent," the minister said.
Grapperhaus also vowed to inform the UN Security Council of the latest PPO steps in line with the resolution 2166.
The Boeing, which was on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. All 298 people, mostly from the Netherlands, who were on board the plane were killed. Kiev blamed local militias for the crash, but they said they had no equipment that would allow them to down a plane at that altitude.
The Dutch-led JIT, which does not include Russia, concluded that the plane had been allegedly downed by a Buk missile that belonged to the Russian Armed Forces. Russia has stressed that it gave the Netherlands radar data and documents proving that the missile belonged to Ukraine, but the information was not taken into account. According to the Russian Office of Public Prosecutor, Moscow responded to all nine requests of the JIT.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said that all missiles like the one whose engine the Dutch-led commission showed were decommissioned after 2011.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed out that Russia was excluded from an investigation of the crash in the east of Ukraine, and Moscow could only recognize the results of the probe if it was a full-fledged participant.
