Kremlin “the Netherlands and Australia confirmed in diplomatic letter all issues on MH17 will be discussed”

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News broke last week after Dutch RTL Nieuws reported that soon the Netherlands, Australia and the Russian Federation will have talks on MH17. According sources of RTL Nieuws the talks are on state liability of Russia. Earlier the Joint Investigation Team stated it has enough evidence confirming a BUK TELAR belonging to the Russian armed forces was responsible for the downing of MH17.

NOS reported that state liability would be discussed.

Soon after the news was reported , the Kremlin stated that all issues on MH17 will be discussed with the Netherlands and Australia. Not just state liabilty. Kremlin wants to talk about the failure by Ukraine to close its airspace, about the information provided by Russia to JIT, about the failure by Ukraine not to hand over primary radar data.

On February 14 Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in her weekly press briefing  added to that earlier statement that Russia was only prepared to hold such consultations  when the Netherlands and Australia  officially confirmed in a diplomatic note their readiness to discuss these full range of issues. The english text of the briefing can be read here.

“The free interpretation of the Foreign Ministry’s statements that Russia, having given its consent to consultations, demonstrates its readiness to admit responsibility on the question of the Malaysian Boeing, these are just fantasies,” she added.

Zakharova also briefly mentioned the influence by the head of Dutch NCTV on the report about the handling of MH17 crisis.

“Although this report is not directly related to the criminal investigation, it clearly shows what the statements of the Netherlands (that they do not interfere with the JIT investigation) are worth.”

#Захарова: Россия дала свое согласие на проведение таких консультаций, только когда Гаага и Канберра официально в дипломатической ноте подтвердили готовность обсуждать в ходе них весь комплекс вопросов, связанных с расследованием по делу сбитого "Боинга"

— МИД России 🇷🇺 (@MID_RF) February 14, 2019

A recording of the weekly pressconference can be seen here

Брифинг официального представителя МИД России Марии Захаровой https://t.co/EDw2ZVKZmt

— МИД России 🇷🇺 (@MID_RF) February 14, 2019

 

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