Business Insider observes...
For the first time in a long time, maybe even since Putins first election to power, the Russian regime has a problem it cannot solve, one that will cost the Kremlin in both money and reputation.
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Evidence is mounting not only that the BUK that killed MH17 came from Russia, but that the firing on the airliner was either supervised or ordered, or even operated, by Russian personnel.
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Panic in Moscow is hard to spot, but even from 6000 miles away, its easy to smell, and the metallic stink of fear is rising off the palace offices of the Russian executive as if from the gurneys in a cancer ward on the morning of an operation.
The only question, really, is how far Putin wants to go toward a trade war, economic collapse, further status as a pariah, maybe even open war, only in order to save face. The conventional wisdom is that he has to cut the insurgency loose.
Maybe. But if he doesnt want to, he may settle for leaving a grinding conflict in place for now, in which he will claim that any real investigation and closure is impossible. He can then place his hopes in the Wests short attention span, and wait until all this blows over.
Earlier the myth that Putin’s plane was the real target of the missile was propagated by the Putinistas even they know full well that SAMs are equipped with a technology that recognizes Russian planes, military and commercial, and avoids them.
I don’t know if he cares. Europe needs his gas and oil. The US is irrelevant...