Putin on the Malaysian Airlines Disaster: Russia Has Been Barred From Participating in the Investigation

President Putin: Forgive me, please. A Decision... I'm still not clear on what decision you were talking about. What decision?

- Is it concerning the cyber attacks or the airplane?

- An airplane? What airplane are you talking about? I don't understand.

 

- It's the Malaysian Airlines plane that was shot down over Donbass in Ukraine.

- Ah, well, yes. You know, we spent the entire day today working, so I'm not familiar with the details of the commission's decision. But I can tell you right now, without even looking at the report, that our stance on the matter is this: from the very beginning we offered to cooperate on the investigation of this tragedy. To our amazement, we're not allowed to participate in the investigation. The Ukrainian side is working there. Despite the fact that Ukraine broke international rules and didn't close its airspace over a territory with active armed hostilities. But its involved while Russia isn't. Therefore, we don't know what's being written or what is the commission's writing based on. In order for us to accept what's declared there, we have to fully participate in the investigation.

But in any case, we're going to treat it with interest and respect. And we'll analyze what's written there. And we'll formulate our stance on the issue, but so far, I haven't even seen the text.