Russia Withdraws From Malaysia Airlines MH17 Shooting Investigation

Debris M H17 (Source: Antara)

JAKARTA - Russia has withdrawn from negotiations with the Netherlands and Australia regarding the downing of Malaysia Airlines' MH17. Russia said the two countries were not really serious in their fact-finding efforts. The statement was made by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Thursday, October 15.

Earlier, the results of an international investigation said MH17 was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by a missile coming from pro-Russian rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine. All of the 298 passengers were killed instantly.

After years of gathering evidence, the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) revealed that the missile launchers used to hit civilian planes came from a Russian military base. The exact point across the border.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the decision to withdraw from the negotiations was taken as a response to the attitude of the Dutch government filing a lawsuit against Moscow at the European Court of Human Rights in July this year.

"Such hostile actions by the Netherlands render efforts to continue tripartite talks meaningless," said the ministry statement, which called the Dutch-led investigation "biased, engineered and politicized."

"Australia and the Netherlands are not trying to understand what happened in the summer of 2014, and instead intend to make Russia admit guilt and get compensation for the relatives of the victims," he said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was very surprised by Russia's unilateral decision to withdraw from negotiations regarding their responsibility for the crash of MH17, as well as the timing of the resignation.

"This is painful for the victim's immediate family," he told Dutch media in Brussels.

Rutte said the Netherlands would continue negotiations with Australia to "accommodate the 298 victims and their relatives." In a separate statement, Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said the Netherlands "regretted" Russia's decision to withdraw from the negotiations.