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Putin says tribunal on MH17 crash "early and counterproductive"

The Russian president had a telephone conversation with Dutch PM Mark Rutte

MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is sure that the international tribunal on the investigation of the Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine in July 2014 is not needed now.

In the telephone conversation with Dutch PM Mark Rutte, Putin detailed Russia’s position on the initiative of a range of countries, including the Netherlands, on establishing the international tribunal to persecute persons responsible for destroying the Malaysian airliner.

Putin said this proposal is "early and counterproductive," the Kremlin press service said.

"The focus was made that to adopt a decision on judicial mechanisms and to bring those guilty in this crime to justice, an active work is needed to complete the international investigation that should be thorough and objective and have an independent and comprehensive character," the statement said.

This should be in full compliance with the provisions of Resolution 2166 of the UN Security Council adopted on July 21, 2014 upon Russia’s initiative, the press service stressed.

The Kremlin press service also said that politicized smear campaigns in the media regarding the causes of the crash were inadmissible.

No unity in UN Security Council

The UN Security Council member states have no common stance on a draft resolution proposed by Malaysia on setting up an international tribunal.

"We have received the draft resolution from the Malaysian delegation in which they propose that an international tribunal be established to try those allegedly responsible for causing the crash," Kurtis Cooper, a spokesperson for the US mission, told TASS.

"This text is the subject of ongoing discussions, so I’m not in the position to comment directly on the text. That said, we continue to fully support efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the shootdown of flight MH17," he said.

Thierry Caboche, a spokesperson for the French mission, said: "We fully support this draft resolution presented by Malaysia and are contributing positively to the ongoing discussions."

A source at the UN headquarters told TASS that the draft resolution is ready and the vote is due on July 21. Malaysia's UN Ambassador Ramlan Bin Ibrahim who presented the document on Tuesday said the work on the text is ongoing, adding he is not sure that the draft could be considered next week.

Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin has dismissed the draft resolution saying it does not correspond to what really happened. He said the main idea of establishing the tribunal is irrelevant while the Netherlands continues investigating the crash.