Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Research group: images of twenty Russians responsible for downing MH17
Dutch Public Broadcasting ^ | 1/2/2016 | Jikke Zijlstra, Michael Smit

Posted on 01/03/2016 3:52:43 PM PST by annalex

Research group: images of twenty Russians responsible for downing MH17

The number of people in the picture for the downing of flight MH17 is reduced to twenty Russian soldiers. They know which of them on July 17 2014 the Buk missile fired at the unit of Malaysia Airlines.

That says Eliot Higgins, founder of the international collective research Bellingcat in an interview with NOS. The network of citizen journalists urged through social media and other public Internet resources on the military.

A comprehensive report containing their names and photographs has Bellingcat two weeks ago given to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service. That leads to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) the criminal investigation occurs in the sinking of the MH17.

The prosecution says it has received information from Bellingcat. All names and other data through the JIT will "be seriously considered, examined and assessed on their suitability for the criminal investigation," said a spokesman.

Bellingcat works with the JIT investigators from the Netherlands, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine and Australia. Higgins and other employees have given during conversations information to the JIT. Higgins is also twice as a witness: last summer and in the autumn of 2014.

53th Brigade

The past year Bellingcat discovered what unit the Russian Buk missile system, which MH17 flight in 2014 brought down, transported to Ukraine: it was the Second Battalion of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, coming from the area of Kursk in Russia. The Battalion consisted of about a hundred soldiers, but Bellingcat knew the group to bring actors back until approximately twenty soldiers.

One of them is Sergey M., the commander of the 53rd brigade. Because of his position he "certainly played a role in the downing of flight MH17 because his brigade's 'weapon' has done," said Bellingcat.

Other stakeholders are Dmitry T., the commander of the Second Battalion, and nine lieutenants who were in charge within the battalion in 2014 Buk-air defense missile systems. Also, some "very experienced soldiers" in the picture that had been trained to operate a Buk-missile system.

"They need to know who has pressed the button on them. They should also know who the orders given for the firing of the missile," Higgins says from his small office in Leicester. Bellingcat know exactly who these men are. "We their photos and names and mountains with other information online to find them. "

Higgins did the research together with eleven volunteers from many countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and the United States. For a year she strolled down sites such as Instagram, Twitter and Vkontakte, the Russian Facebook.

Through attendance lists, messages, videos and photos they could structure the 53th Brigade and the Second Battalion mapping, including the names of the military.

Bellingcat sent the entire investigation in late December to the JIT. "The researchers do not tell what they are doing with our information. But they have previously indicated there to be happy, and to take us seriously."

"That is to know that, because the JIT has our discovery of the trailer in which the Russian Buk missile system is transported even used in an online call witnesses." The call was made in a Russian-language video with English subtitles.

Sensitive

Soon Bellingcat place an anonymous version of the investigation of the 53th Brigade on the site. Names and photos of the soldiers are omitted to avoid evidence being taken offline by the same military.

"They can take away their social media profile and delete other tracks. That way we could bring the criminal investigation. That's the last thing we want," said Higgins.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: agitprop; astroturf; bellingcat; mh17; paidrussiantrolls; planecrash; putinsbuttboys; russia; russianstooge; russianstooges; vladtheimploder
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-23 last
To: annalex

Decimated by Stalin’s program of deliberate starvation.


21 posted on 01/03/2016 6:59:11 PM PST by binreadin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: annalex
"...the sinking of MH17..."

Torpedoed?

22 posted on 01/03/2016 8:26:23 PM PST by diogenes ghost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: diogenes ghost

It’s a Google translation from Dutch; I looked it over once, but not knowing Dutch and given passable quality overall, I overlooked this one.


23 posted on 01/03/2016 10:38:10 PM PST by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-23 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson