MOSCOW, July 26 (RIA Novosti) – The US Administration relies on blatant lies in its foreign policy, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Saturday.
“Judging by a relentless blackwashing campaign against Russia, launched by the US Administration, they more often rely on blatant lies while conducting its foreign policy. Take for instance new statements made by US president spokesperson Josh Earnest who blamed our country for the crash of the Malaysia Airlines plane in Ukraine,” the document reads.
“And it is now a common practice in Washington when no evidence nor even references to the facts are given as a confirmation, which we could have verified and commented on. All the White House says is limited to mentioning some ‘intelligence data’ that cannot be presented or, and this is totally absurd, ‘information from the social media’,” Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17 killing all 298 people, including 85 children, on board.
Earlier Friday, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said at a briefing that Washington accuses the Russian leadership of being involved in the tragedy. According to the official, the plane was downed by a rocket fired from the territory controlled by Ukraine’s independence supporters. Earnest stated that the US Administration obtained information about Russia supposedly training Ukrainian self-defense forces to operate anti-aircraft Buk missiles from the social media.
Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow has a number of questions to the American side, which continues to isolate itself from the possibility to adequately consider anything apart from its own conclusions.
“Before naming those “at fault” the US should have answered 10 questions of Russian Defense Ministry and 22 questions of Rosaviatsiya [Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency]. Why is Washington silent? Evidently, because they have nothing to say. Or because their answer can be summarized in one word – sanctions,” the ministry concluded.
Earlier Monday, Russian military said a Ukrainian combat jet, supposedly a Su-25, was detected in close approach to the Malaysian passenger plane shortly before it crashed in eastern Ukraine.
