"A package of information was handed over to the Dutch authorities by the Russian public prosecution department,” Dutch Justice Minister Ard van der Steur said Wednesday, as quoted by the Dutch News portal.
In an interview with Sputnik, Eduard Popov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Russian Diasporas in Moscow, said that, judging from the initial response, the Dutch authorities have no interest whatsoever in any information provided by the Russian side.
“This is a clear case of an anti-Russian bias on the part of the Dutch. Which is all the more surprising because it is in their best interest to ask Russia to provide all possible information [about the crash], like satellite photos, or seek assistance from Russian specialists. They never asked for any help from us and all this time they have been dragging their feet on examining our information,” Popov said.
He added that even though the West had already “designated” the culprits, it didn’t mean that Russia should stop proving its innocence.
“We must keep doing this no matter what. This situation reminds me of the August 2008 events in South Ossetia when the US and Europe outright rejected out point of view only to tacitly accept it afterwards. I think this is exactly what is going to happen in the case of the Malaysian Boeing and the West will grudgingly admit that we were right.”
“Apart from the JIT, there are many international aviation organizations out there which we can and should bring on board to prove our case,” Eduard Popov said.
The transferred information contains radar data related to the crash.
Ard van der Steur said, according to Dutch television channel NOS, that the international investigation commission conducting the inquiry into the disaster, would evaluate the data and decide whether it could be used in the ongoing probe.
Russian concern Almaz-Antey earlier said that it had primary radar data about the air situation in the area of the crash of Flight MH17.
The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) tasked with probing the crash announced in September that the Malaysian airliner was allegedly downed by a Buk missile system, which had been brought in from Russia and consequently returned there.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot down over eastern Ukraine as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board, including 80 children and 15 crew members, were killed.
