Russia summons Dutch ambassador over MH17 investigation

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned Dutch ambassador in Moscow Renee Jones-Bos over the recent announcement of findings concerning the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash.

The Russian side expressed to the Dutch ambassador its reasons to "doubt the objectiveness, reliability and impartiality of the conclusions made by the Joint Investigation Team," Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying.

Moscow "urged the Hague to study carefully the radar data that Russia has recently handed over to the investigation team," it added.

Jones-Bos said after the meeting that she would discuss it with her government, without elaborating, Russian state media said.

The Boeing 777 passenger jet crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board died, most of them Dutch citizens.

Western investigators and Kiev have been claiming that pro-independence insurgents in eastern Ukraine shot down the aircraft, accusations that Moscow has denied.

On Wednesday, the Dutch-led team, consisting of representatives of the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine, announced that the airplane had been hit by an anti-aircraft Buk missile from the territory controlled by pro-Russian insurgents.

Moscow refused to accept the findings, saying that the investigation was "biased and politically motivated."

--IANS

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