MH17 investigations continue with Russians freeing Ukrainian boats
MH17 investigations are continuing with the AFP closely monitoring positive movement in Russian-Ukraine relations.
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Two Ukrainian naval gunboats and a tug boat were this week reluctantly towed to freedom by the Russian coastguard through the Kerch Strait.
The release of the three ships, captured a year ago by the Russian navy, is part of broader preparations for a summit attempting to resolve the five-year-old Ukraine-Russia conflict that has cost 13,000 lives.
In the embattled East Ukraine, Russian troops have also begun moving back across the border to their barracks and Ukraine soldiers have been withdrawing from the frontline, all preconditions for the December 9 peace talks to be hosted by France.
A world away in the Australian Federal Police headquarters in Canberra, the development is being monitored with interest closely.
The geopolitical situation would not normally attract police attention but it is the exact sort of scenario being played out that police here and in the Netherlands are counting on to turn the tide on information flow to help them in the investigation of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
“We see it as a positive just in terms of harmony and the wellbeing of the Ukrainian people and if that allows us to build relationships so we can take our investigation forward, well that assists us as well,” AFP assistant commissioner Peter Crozier told News Corp Australia yesterday.
“We never lose sight of why we do this and that reason is for those people who lost their lives and their families and friends who have lost someone very important to them.”
And that sight is now set firmly on Moscow and some of the highest echelons of the Kremlin and the GRU and FSB intelligence services in a significant escalation and perhaps expansion, to the probe into the downing of the passenger flight.
It is hoped the de-escalation of hostilities in the region will prompt witnesses and defectors to come forward and provide vital evidence that can resolve exactly who and why a passenger airline was shot down five years ago.
And with promises of immunity, witness protection programs and even offers of relocation and in some cases permanent resettling in another country, there is every likelihood peace will proffer new witnesses and evidence.
MH17, on a schedule flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian Buk missile on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 on board including 38 Australians.
Three named Russian spies and a Ukrainian militia leader were in June this year charged with the mass murder and will be tried in The Hague in absentia next year.
But last week police investigators made an extraordinary revelation that they had intercepted communications from the time, including mobile phone recordings, showing Russia not only supplied spies, soldiers and armaments to restive Ukraine rebels but was also behind the financing, direction and administration of hostilities. This is a serious escalation to their investigations the diplomatic fallout from which respective governments involved in the police probe – namely Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine.
Mr Crozier was unapologetic and clear the long list of suspects behind MH17, regardless of how senior they are in with the Russian Federation apparatchik, will be pursued.
“We’ve always suspected there was that close alignment in terms of military relationship but also at the administrative and the more directing of leadership aspects of decision making,” he said.
“In terms of the call for witnesses as we are now, this is about those individuals that may provide greater evidence that these links actually existed. People working in establishment that were aware of conversations, aware of interplay aware of decision making about things that led to this situation but other things we can draw upon to say there is a close nexus in terms of that and the bringing down of MH17.
“We are looking to have an understanding of structure, an understanding of who were in decision making positions and how far up the line within the Russian Federation some of the decision making went. Those are the sort of people that will provide us with that real insight into how that works. It may not just be the issues around MH17, it can be more around how that influence occurred and then the result was a capacity to influence the decision to send the Buk across the border.”
As a prompt, JIT has released a trove of recordings and transcripts of wire-tap conversations between senior Russian figures and rebels; some are identified by name and others are not instead use call signs like Sherif and Mongol.
One prominent figure identified and referenced in many daily dealings is Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu who it transpires gave the militia the “mandate” two weeks before MH17 was downed.
Mongol: We’re moving towards unity of command. What happens next is a bunch of men with a mandate from Shoygu will arrive and kick the local warlords the f*ck out of the units.
(unidentified): Uh-huh.
Mongol: … and then people from Moscow will take charge.(…)
The day before MH17 was downed and orders were clear.
Sherif: It’s a week we’ve directly …. [inaudible] to Moscow and we get the orders. (…)
Mongol: We get the orders from Moscow as well. It’s the same with us.
Sherif: But it’s FSB in your case? Right?
Mongol: Yes.
Sherif: And it’s GRU in our case. That’s the only difference.
Mongol: I know about it perfectly well.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has rubbished suggestions senior officials were involved but Crozier said more evidence will come.
“There is a scepticism thing, ‘you’ll never be able to establish anything’, and now we are at a point where we have charged four people. Whether people come forward, we need to be open minded and optimistic that people have that understand and are prepared to talk to us.
He added assuredly: “It’s out there and there are people who know.”
Originally published as MH17 investigations continue with Russians freeing Ukrainian boats
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