MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Western countries do not hesitate to use all possible means of pressure as part of their hybrid war on Russia, a senior Russian diplomat said.
"A hybrid war is being waged against Russia. And those who unleashed it are using all possible measures - information, economic, military, and even judicial pressure," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told journalists, commenting on the Netherlands’ plans to claim compensation from Russia for the crash of the MH17 flight in July 2014.
According to Grushko, Russia is fully aware that the West continues attempts to "breathe a new judicial life into this story where the West has totally failed."
Acting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte wrote on his X page earlier that he doesn’t rule out that the Netherland may lodge "a valid claim for compensation in the Netherlands' legal proceedings against Russia" following the MH17 crash.
Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people from ten countries A joint investigative team (JIT) comprising representatives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine, was established in order to carry out a criminal investigation into the crash. In June 2019, the investigators announced that they had identified a group of four people, suspected of being involved in the incident. They were former militia leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Igor Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, and his subordinates Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko. The trial against them in absentia began in the Netherlands on March 9, 2020. They were accused of delivering a Buk missile system from Russia to Ukraine. The prosecution demanded life imprisonment for all the defendants. On November 17, 2022, Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko were sentenced in absentia to life in prison. Pulatov was acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence.
Russian officials repeatedly expressed their lack of confidence in the results of the JIT’s work, and pointed out the groundlessness of the accusations, as well as the unwillingness to use Moscow’s conclusions during the investigation.