Unproven and Politicized: Malaysia's Prime Minister on Accusations Against Russia in the Aviary Disaster Claiming 298 Lives

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has described the conclusions of the joint investigative team regarding the crash of a Malaysian Airlines jet as politically motivated and unproven from the start. His remarks were quoted by the Malay Mail newspaper.

“We are very concerned because this has become a political issue from the beginning, which was how to blame Russia,” emphasized the Prime Minister.

He recalled that accusations against Moscow had been made “before the investigation even started.” “Now they say they have evidence,” Mahathir stated, adding that “there is currently no evidence, only rumors.”

It is noteworthy that the MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was downed on July 17, 2014, in the Donetsk area. There were 298 people on board the aircraft, and no one survived. Most of them were citizens of the Netherlands. Kyiv accused the Russian forces in Donetsk for the incident, which they denied, stating they lacked the means to shoot down an aircraft from such a height.

The investigation, which Russia did not participate in, lasted five years. Four suspects' names have now been published, who are Russian and Ukrainian citizens: Girkin, Dubinsky, Pulatov, and Kharchenko.