MH17 Crash Used Against Russia for 'Western Political Goals From Beginning'

The MH17 crash has been used by the Western governments for political purposes against Russia, a former state secretary in the German Defense Ministry told Sputnik Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — The final technical report on the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine is due to be released on Thursday by the Dutch Safety Board. Russia has repeatedly expressed its disappointment that Dutch investigators have not collaborated with Russian specialists.

“Fact is, that from the very beginning, this tragedy was used for a political purpose. Russia should be blamed for it, because western governments wanted to achieve their goals in Ukraine and against Russia,” Willy Wimmer said.

The MH17 air crash, in which all 298 people died, triggered another round of confrontation between Russia and the West, with the latter strengthening sanctions against Moscow.

Ukraine and its Western allies blame the Donbass militia for downing the aircraft, while the militia forces said that they did not have weapons capable of bringing down an aircraft flying at such an altitude and blamed Kiev for the plane crash.

Willy Wimmer stressed that public opinion worldwide is very skeptical about the upcoming results, because the victims of the tragedy have been “used again for political purpose.”

“It is a tragedy that so many people died in this air disaster and so many people lost their relatives. But is a tragedy itself, what happened to the inquiry which is so vital. Not only to those who lost their loved ones but also to the civilized world,” Willy Wimmer told Sputnik.

The investigation into the MH17 crash is not in line with international standards and far from being transparent, he added.

“When you look on the inquiry itself, it doesn't fulfill international norms, which are accepted by everybody,” Wimmer said.

He underlined that the “international standards is one thing and that, what happened here in Dutch responsibility is something else.”

Wimmer recalled the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf in March 2015, when the flight recorder was presented to the public within days after the tragedy and the investigation was transparent.

“Such an inquiry has to be open; everything has to be taken into consideration,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also noted several peculiarities in the investigation that have left many questions unanswered. In particular, Malaysia was not invited to participate in the inquiry for half a year, plane debris was not removed from the crash site for a long time, and that the International Civil Aviation Organization was not invited to participate in leading roles, though it is a regular practice, Lavrov said.