#PutinAtWar: Dismissing MH17

A damaged missile is displayed during a news conference in Bunnik, Netherlands, on May 24 by members of the Joint Investigation Team—comprising authorities from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine—who presented interim results of their investigation into the 2014 crash of Malaysian Airlines MH17 in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters/Francois Lenoir)

On May 24, 2018, a Dutch-led international investigation said that the weapon which downed Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014 had been provided by a Russian military unit.

Kremlin and pro-Kremlin outlets were quick to launch a counter-offensive, denying any Russian involvement, and attacking the investigators and their methods.

Many Kremlin responses to criticism follow a pattern we term the 4 Ds: dismiss, distort, distract, and dismay. The latest response by the Russian government and its supporters to the MH17 charges used the first three techniques, but not, interestingly, the fourth.

Read the full article here.

Related Experts: Ben Nimmo

Image: A damaged missile is displayed during a news conference in Bunnik, Netherlands, on May 24 by members of the Joint Investigation Team—comprising authorities from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine—who presented interim results of their investigation into the 2014 crash of Malaysian Airlines MH17 in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters/Francois Lenoir)