On October 3, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov summoned Dutch Ambassador Regina Jones-Bos to the Foreign Ministry.

The Ambassador was informed about the serious reasons why Russia cannot recognise as satisfactory the intermediate results of the criminal investigation into the July 17, 2014 crash of the Malaysian Boeing in Ukrainian airspace that were released on September 28. It was noted that the Russian side still has reasonable grounds to doubt the objectivity, credibility and impartiality of the findings presented by the Joint Investigative Team (JIT). The quality of the evidence regarding the launching point of the missile that brought down the airliner, as well as the route of the Buk self-propelled system’s redeployment, which was demonstrated during the presentation of the report, does not measure up either to the standard of the investigation initiated under UN Security Council Resolution 2166 or to the level of responsibility of the investigative team directed by the Dutch prosecutor’s office.

During the conversation, the Dutch side was notified about the serious arguments behind Russia’s rejection of the JIT’s methods. Russia still believes that they were characterised by secretiveness, non-transparency and bias. It was noted that it is unacceptable to ignore the important objective information that Russia has presented, as this undermines cooperation between Russian experts and the investigation and also compromises the efforts to establish the truth about the tragedy.

The Russian side urged The Hague to thoroughly study the primary radar data that Russia conveyed recently, which are the most objective proof of what actually happened in the Ukrainian airspace at the time of the catastrophe, and to take them into account in the final conclusions.

A special emphasis was placed on the peril of exerting pressure on Russia and the world community as a whole to force [them] to turn a blind eye to all of the numerous defects in the JIT’s work and to recognise its findings as the only credible explanation, impervious to any doubts.

The hope was expressed that the JIT, within its purview, will make an objective assessment of Ukraine’s failure to close its airspace as one of the main causes of the tragedy.