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Russia calls for continued investigation into crash of MH17

Xinhua, October 14, 2015

• Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said the country is ready to take part in the following investigation into the tragedy of Malaysian airliner flight MH17, which crashed in Ukraine's conflict-torn Donbass region in July 2014.

  "Of course we are ready (for continuing investigation)," said Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman of the ministry, who insisted a number of questions still remain unanswered regarding the incident.

  "This situation could be overcome by continuing a properly adjusted investigation, with full involvement of countries possessing materials that can shed some light on the MH17 disaster," an online statement quoted Zakharova as saying.

  The spokeswoman pointed out that it is indisputable that Ukraine was directly responsible for not closing its airspace to civil aviation flights.

  While noting that Russia is studying the final report released earlier in the day by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB), Zakharova stressed that Russia has always expressed willingness but was refused to participate in previous investigations "on different pretexts."

  It is strange that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte urged Russia to cooperate in the criminal investigation into the MH17 crash, when from the very beginning Russia is prepared to engage in this work, Zakharova said.

  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also criticized the investigation as "biased and purposefully partial."

  "We have never concealed that we are very frustrated, for instance, by the fact that Russian experts have not been engaged in this investigation," Peskov said.

  He added that information obtained by Moscow, in particular experiment reports done by Russian Almaz-Antei missile manufacturer, was not considered by the investigation team.

  Almaz-Antei published its investigation results Tuesday, pointing out that the plane was shot down by a 9M38 surface-to-air missile from the vicinity of southeastern Ukraine's Zaroshchenskoye settlement controlled by the Ukrainian military.

  The DSB later published investigation reports on the cause of the MH17 crash, namely the detonation of a 9N314M-type warhead launched from eastern Ukraine using a Buk missile system.

  Additional criminal investigation will be carried out by the Joint Investigation Team to establish the exact launching location of the missile.

  The Joint Investigation Team is led by the Dutch national police and prosecutor, with the participation of specialists from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine.

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