‘Leave it to me’: Vladimir Putin’s revenge hit on MH17 linked to missing MH370

Vladimir Putin shot down MH17 killing 298 – including 38 Australians – as a favour to China after the US downed MH370, according to sensational new claims.

Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in a “Mafia-style” revenge hit for the US downing of another Malaysian Airlines flight that killed 153 Chinese, according to an MH370 expert.

Investigative journalist Florence De Changy, who has been searching for flight MH370 since it disappeared in 2014, claims Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the order to shoot down MH17 – killing 38 Australians – as a favour to China’s Chairman Xi Jinping.

The claim was made in an exclusive preview of her new book, The Disappearing Act: The Impossible Case of MH370, published by The Sun.

Ms De Changy alleges that a source revealed that Putin told Xi following the disappearance of MH370: “What happened is not acceptable. Leave it to me”.

She said it was a way of Putin sending a message to the US: “You mess with us, and we’ll mess with you.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Chairman Xi Jinping meet in Beijing before the breakout of war in Ukraine. Picture: AFP

Ms De Changy has previously suggested that MH370 was brought down by the US air force with signal jamming technology in a “diversion operation” to stop top-secret technology from reaching China.

The Boeing-777 executed a dramatic U-turn less than an hour into its planned flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappearing over the Indian Ocean. A presumed 239 people remain missing.

“What is obvious is that the likelihood of this double accident is basically beyond statistics,” Ms De Changy told Sun Online.

“ … To have two planes of the same model and the same company destroyed in four months should not be treated as just bad luck.”

MH17 and MH370 were both twin planes of the same make, model, and airline with a strikingly similar name. The shooting down of MH17 four months later killed a total of 298 mostly westerners and no Chinese citizens.

Ms De Changy said Putin planned the attack as a way to “hit back” like a Mafia-style hit on a niece or brother so the message gets back to the boss.

“I looked for information that could oppose this scenario or prove it wrong … and did not find any,” she said.

“On the contrary, I noticed that Xi and Putin were getting closer than ever during that period of time and they happened to have been physically together in Brazil when MH17 was downed.

“The day before, they talked of taking their relationship to a new ‘higher level’ and Putin mentions ‘striking the iron while it’s hot’.

Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Picture: Getty

Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Picture: AFP

Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Picture: AFP

Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Picture: AFP

Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Picture: AFP

“I also discussed this [theory] with people in that world [intelligence services] and to my great surprise, the more informed and high ranking they were, the less shocked they seemed about this hypothesis.

“In fact, one told me, the more outrageous the more likely it is to be true, in this kind of operation.”

Florence, a journalist for 30 years, also spoke with German Aviation expert Dr Christoph Klingenberg who said the chances of the two disasters being unrelated was 0.009 per cent – equivalent to once every 32,000 years.

Partially reconstructed Malaysia Airlines plane that was downed by a missile over Ukraine. Picture: AFP

Partially reconstructed Malaysia Airlines plane that was downed by a missile over Ukraine. Picture: AAP

The Hague last week ended its trial against three Russians and a Ukrainian accused of shooting down flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Russian Oleg Pulatov, an ex-special forces soldier, told Dutch judges in a video statement that he had “nothing to do with the disaster”.

“I fully took part in the (court) procedure and there is irrefutable evidence that the prosecution did not explain the full circumstances of the crash,” added Pulatov said in Russian.

“It is the prosecution’s main aim to get a conviction by any means.”

Members of a joint investigation team present the preliminary results of the criminal investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Picture: AFP

Pulatov’s lawyer Sabine ten Doesschate said prosecutors failed to prove a Russian-made BUK missile was responsible for shooting down the jetliner.

Refusing to take part in the trial were the other three suspects, Igor Girkin, a former Russian spy who helped kickstart the war in Ukraine, Russian Sergei Dubinsky, linked to the Kremlin an alleged separatist intelligence chief, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, who allegedly led a separatist unit in the Donbas.

The court is not expected to hand down its verdict until November at the earliest.

– with AFP