Key figure in Boeing MH17 shootdown identified as deputy head of Russia’s FSB Border Service

Just as some leaders seek to distract attention from their old lies by telling new ones, so the Putin regime regularly commits new crimes so that those who are investigating old ones are often viewed as cranks concerned about what some view as a distant and unimportant past that everyone needs to “look beyond.” In many respects, that is what has happened to investigations into Russian involvement in the July 2014 shooting down of the Malaysian jetliner MH17 over Ukraine, an event that in the minds of some has been eclipsed by Moscow actions like the poisoning of the Skripals in Great Britain or the attempted poisoning more recently of the mayor of Prague. But documenting Kremlin malfeasance regardless of its date remains important, and the world owes a debt of gratitude to researchers at The Insider and Bellingcat for documenting to a near certainty that FSB Lt.Gen. Andrey Burlaka, deputy head of the Russian Border Service within FSB, was directly involved in the Malaysian plane case.

Hitherto, he had been hidden behind the name “Vladimir Ivanovich” in the documents that had been prepared by the Joint Investigation Group that has been looking into the shootdown. But an examination of telephone and travel records by The Insider and Bellingcat shows he and his colleagues were actively involved in this affair. As students of conspiracies know, it is important to build from the outside to the center lest those who organized the conspiracy escape being held responsible while their underlings take the rap. The identification of Burlaka and his role in supplying heavy weapons to pro-Moscow forces before the shootdown is an important step in that process.

Read More:

• For Putin, MH17 shootdown hearings more serious than ruble’s fall and coronavirus’ spread, Eggert says
• JIT charges four suspects over downing MH17, Bellingcat identifies eight more
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• This week’s pro-kremlin disinformation desperation: MH17 and WWII
• Intercepted phone calls show MH17 suspects’ connections to Russian military and Kremlin
• Tracing five years of pro-Kremlin disinformation about MH17: Infographic
• Whataboutism strikes again in Russia’s disinformation campaign to discredit the MH17 investigation