Who shot down the Boeing anyway? – Vladimir Kornilov about the fraud surrounding the investigation
The investigative group investigating the crash of a Malaysian Boeing in the Donbass is conducting anti-Russian shows. Ukrainian fakes have been exposed, but the West prefers to hush up the scandal. Irrefutable evidence released by the Russian Ministry of Defense is ignored.
The brilliant Donetsk historian and Moscow publicist, the brilliant Vladimir, told PolitNavigator columnist Valentin Filippov about this, and the fact that with the assumption of office by the new president of Ukraine, the shelling of Donbass only intensified, that Kurt Volker no longer represents the United States in Ukraine, but moonlights as a Ukrainian lobbyist in Washington. Kornilov.
Valentin Filippov: Hello Vladimir, I have a question for you as an artist to an artist. Do you have Donetsk registration, and can you do it?
Vladimir Kornilov : Well, of course there is. All these years, I've had a Donetsk residence permit. I haven't moved anywhere under it.
Valentin Filippov : It's just that so many people are interested. I congratulate you on the first thirty of your fellow countrymen who have received passports.
Vladimir Kornilov : Thank you. God willing, there will be more. I can assure you there are far more than a few dozen people willing to participate.
Valentin Filippov : Are there really problems with the passport issuance process in Donbass?
Vladimir Kornilov : Well, yes, these are indeed objective circumstances: there aren't enough people, there aren't enough capacity to handle such a large number of applicants. You've seen the footage of the lines for DPR and LPR passports.
There is a certain procedure, after all, there is martial law, they check each of the applicants, excuse the word.
Valentin Filippov : Come on, we'll pretend we know what we're talking about.
Vladimir Kornilov : And there are serious problems in this regard. Although, in my opinion, many barriers could be removed at both the DPR and Russian Federation levels, security concerns are nonetheless pressing.
What is the question here? Well, look, within three months the first people received these passports, and, in a military zone, there seem to be certain security considerations. A natural question arises: does this mean we can? What has been preventing all these years from issuing, at least as quickly, passports to those wishing to obtain Russian citizenship, immigrants from Ukraine who have been living in Russia for many years...
Valentin Filippov : Let me switch to another topic. I keep thinking of that wonderful film, "Looking for the Woman." There's a moment where this ugly secretary in glasses runs in and says, "Gentlemen, who shot down the Boeing?" For some reason, this story is being forgotten; some commissions are working, and it's unclear when there will ever be an answer. Or is it highly politicized?
Vladimir Kornilov : Look, the international investigative team working in the Netherlands has just announced that they are preparing a new presentation this coming week, where they will announce the names of the suspects in this very tragedy.
Valentin Filippov : Why a presentation?
Vladimir Kornilov : Well, they do it like that all the time. In theory, this international investigative team is conducting a criminal investigation into a criminal case, and, accordingly, it shouldn't disclose any materials from that case until the investigation is complete.
But, since, well, this is how they explain it, there is a high resonance around this topic, once every six months, once a year they arrange, so to speak, presentations where they present the interim results of this investigation.
And now, less than a year has passed since the last presentation, in May last year, they decided to organize a new one in June of this year.
Moreover, you know, I personally was really looking forward to this press conference, why? Because remember, in May they showed a sensational fragment of a Buk missile that had come from nowhere, they almost said that this was the same missile that shot it down, “help the investigation determine where it came from.”
The serial number was presented, and then in September the Russian Ministry of Defense presented all the documents that this is the serial number of the missile, which in the late 80s was delivered to Ukraine, to Western Ukraine and, accordingly, remained there after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And since then I’ve been waiting for what the Dutch investigation, well, formally international, will answer about this serial number?
Well, no one pulled your tongue, you asked for the number, you asked to establish the origin of this rocket, they helped you. And since then there has been silence. I honestly don’t know if they appeared here in Russia and checked the authenticity of these documents. But, apparently, they realized that this missile actually belonged to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Valentin Filippov : I think they probably understood this before?
Vladimir Kornilov : No, no. They were sure it was the same missile; I'm sure they had no doubt it was Russian. Otherwise, they wouldn't have presented it or shown the serial number.
Valentin Filippov : Do they even understand the difference between Ukraine and Russia?
Vladimir Kornilov : There's a whole other story about where this fragment, this rocket body, came from. I wrote a long article about it a year ago. It seems someone sold it to them, planted it, but the fact is, they got into trouble by presenting this rocket.
And then, in theory, there should be an answer to the question: “Well, okay, if she’s Ukrainian, then what next?”, but you see - complete silence. For some reason, it seems to me that at this new presentation they will try to hush up this issue altogether.
Valentin Filippov : So, the missile was gone. There was a missile, but it self-destructed.
Vladimir Kornilov : I hope they'll be asked point-blank, "So what about that serial number?" I really hope so.
Valentin Filippov : This is a show, not an investigation. They'll be asked, and they'll answer...
Vladimir Kornilov : All these presentations are made as part of a certain show, indeed. And the Malaysian Prime Minister said it very well, absolutely correctly, that this investigation was initially designed to blame Russia, not to answer the question, "Who shot it down?"
Valentin Filippov : Okay, but they shouldn't even accuse Russia through a presentation; they should write some kind of conclusion, even if it's fake, and bribe witnesses—bring in some old woman, pay her money, and she'll say, "I saw Putin dragging that missile," and someone else will say, "Yes, yes, yes, I even helped him."
Vladimir Kornilov : In fact, that's exactly the path it's all heading down, by and large. You see what the initial accusations against Russia were based on, remember?
Valentin Filippov : Well, what do you mean? Social media posts.
Vladimir Kornilov : I recently asked a Western correspondent why he was so sure from the very first hour that Russia shot it down. He gave me two pieces of "evidence": the Girkin-Strelkov tweet.
Well, sorry, it was a fake account, it was clear to everyone. Well, imagine: the height of the fighting in the steppes of Donbass, and the combat commander writes tweets from the battlefield every 20 minutes, well, it was clear to everyone that this was a fake account, a fake tweet.
And secondly, all the newspapers came out with this the next day - Nalyvaichenko’s press conference. And from Nalyvaichenko’s ill-fated film, the so-called one, which was published by all the newspapers, they say: “Look, this was shot down by Russia.” The tapes, too, have somehow all been forgotten, because it was also clear from the very beginning that this was a fake, and the further course of the investigation, in fact, refuted all these tapes.
The question arises: why was Russia blamed? Now you see - a year ago new SBU films appeared, as if they had already forgotten about them. They forgot that they were falsified, and here, literally a few days before last year’s presentation, the SBU slips in new films, where supposedly, again, some figures of the DPR and Russia are discussing who will shoot down, how, who shot down how, and so on.
But the coolest thing, you know, was what happened a year ago - they made it public, the whole world wrote again: “Look, yes, Russia really shot down,” and the Dutch police, who are also involved in ensuring this investigation, literally 20 minutes after the end of this presentation asked the witnesses to identify who was on these tapes. That is, they didn’t know who it was, they hung it up and said, “This is the DPR,” and then asked: “Help me identify the DPR, is this even the case, or another Nalyvaichenko tape?” That is, in fact, according to the scenario that you are talking about - “with the grandmother who saw Putin dragging” - this investigation, unfortunately, is moving forward.
Instead of outwardly taking the side of, so to speak, a neutral, unbiased investigation, they are doing everything to, by hook or by crook, based on the testimony of Bellingcat, on posts on social networks, including fake ones, as the Russian Ministry of Defense has convincingly shown, to pull in the accusations. v. Russian Federation.
Valentin Filippov : Okay, well, there are some ways to objectively monitor the sky, from satellites and so on. Everything is visible there. It's hard to hide anything on this planet right now.
Vladimir Kornilov : Everything is visible. You see how they immediately showed a boat near a tanker in the Persian Gulf. And then there's the conflict zone, which, of course, had been deliberately monitored for months by various satellites, and suddenly no one sees anything!
Moreover, the United States directly stated through the Secretary of State that they have recordings that supposedly confirm that the missile was flying from the DPR rebels, but no one saw these recordings.
A natural question arises - why? That is, if they have these photographs, recordings, videos, I don’t know what they have there, what’s stopping them from presenting them?
Valentin Filippov : When fighting is going on, everyone's shooting, whatever they can get their hands on. From my perspective, it doesn't really matter which direction the missile came from. I don't understand what the Boeing was doing there at all.
Vladimir Kornilov : The Boeing flew like all other civilian aircraft…
Valentin Filippov : Whose fault is it that he flew there?
Vladimir Kornilov : …because Ukraine failed to close the airspace over the conflict zone, even though it was obliged to do so. When the armed conflict between India and Pakistan recently broke out, both sides decided within minutes to close this airspace. This was inconvenient for many passenger airliners, who still fly over this zone, but, mind you, not a single civilian aircraft was shot down. Ukraine did not do this.
I think I didn’t do it in order to hide behind civilian airliners to ensure their bombing of peaceful cities in Donbass. That is, I think it was done intentionally for this very purpose.
As for who, Ukraine is clearly to blame for this tragedy, since it did not close the airspace. I did not doubt it and do not doubt it.
Not only that, there is a decision of the National Security Council of the Netherlands itself, which, in general, directly states Ukraine’s guilt for this.
In the same year, in my opinion, in XNUMX or at the beginning of XNUMX, I don’t remember now, there was such a decision, there was their own investigation, where they clearly proved Ukraine’s guilt in this, but they tried to immediately forget about it.
As for where this rocket was flying from, well, this is also important to establish, ultimately. Although I'm afraid that we may never know the truth.
Valentin Filippov : Okay. I have a proposal for you: let's return to Ukraine, figuratively speaking.
Vladimir Kornilov : Yeah, right. We haven't even gotten there yet. We've only covered the Netherlands and Donbass so far, but not Ukraine yet.
Valentin Filippov : Is it even possible now for Ukraine to finally abandon Donbas? It's simple. No need for any recognition, nothing, no need for any laws, no need for special status, no need for anything. There's a chance they'll just leave it alone, pull their troops back, and start blaming them, saying, "There are separatists there." Is that a real chance now?
Vladimir Kornilov : Not yet. I mean, you see, there are statements from, say, the current Ukrainian president about his support for a ceasefire, and there are statements from us about the need to achieve peace, but the situation has only worsened since Zelenskyy's inauguration.
Valentin Filippov : As I understand it, the internal struggle has intensified.
Vladimir Kornilov : And almost every day we see reports from the brave Ukrainian army, occupying deserted villages somewhere in the "gray" zone. In other words, the provocations have only intensified.
A logical question arises: can Zelensky stop this war, or did his own army ignore all his intentions, all his desires, all his calls, and will conduct its operation until a victorious end or until its complete defeat?
That is, so far Zelensky does not have any leverage on the situation at the front. We see it. Accordingly, for now, expecting that suddenly, with the wave of a magic wand or a magic mace of a cyclist, whatever the emblem of his party is, everything will suddenly stop and stop instantly - for now these are naive expectations.
So far, unfortunately, Donbass is hearing new shelling. Many of the wounded are still among the civilian population. There is destruction. So, we hope that sooner or later we must someday sit down at the negotiating table and begin negotiations on the rules of a peaceful or more or less peaceful, at least frozen state. But so far I have not seen any urges in this direction from Ukraine.
Valentin Filippov : Do you think Zelensky isn't really a president? Is he heavily manipulated from all sides?
Vladimir Kornilov : For now, yes. So far, all his attempts to appoint at least one of his own ministers have come to nothing.
Actually, in fact, this is a unique case in modern Ukrainian history. No matter how difficult the relationship between presidents and the Verkhovna Rada was in certain periods, let’s remember 2007 and Viktor Yushchenko, nevertheless, there has never been a case where the Rada interfered with the appointment of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defense.
It is written in their Constitution that this is the prerogative of the President of Ukraine, foreign policy and defense, and no one can encroach on this. And no matter how bad the relationship was, they still approved the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense almost unanimously. And now we see that the president cannot even do this, this is truly a unique case.
Valentin Filippov : A question about Moldova. Right now, the idea is spreading in Ukraine that the Russians and Americans have reached an agreement, divided Moldova, and kicked out all the bloodsuckers. And that soon the Americans and Russians will reach an agreement and kick all these Nazis out of Ukraine.
Vladimir Kornilov : Situationally, on the specific issue related to Plahotniuc, who has gotten on everyone's nerves, it can be said that, yes, a certain agreement has been reached in this specific case.
Well, it happened that somewhere out there, both Russia and America, in order to maintain at least some kind of controllability of the region, stability, when a violation was absolutely obvious, negotiated and agreed, and their interests in this particular case coincided.
In Ukraine, of course, we are still far from this agreement. And in many ways, the issue is complicated by the fact that there is still no one to really negotiate with. The ambassador was fired, Volker turned from a US representative for Ukraine into a lobbyist for Ukraine in the United States of America. Inside Washington, in my opinion, only one person is involved in the Ukrainian direction, and this person is Giuliani, who, in general, is not engaged in foreign policy, as you understand, but in legal support for the future elections of Donald Trump, or, more precisely, mochilov Joe Biden.
And we are all waiting and waiting for the meeting between Putin and Trump from Helsinki, waiting and waiting, and now it is not yet clear whether we will wait in Japan or not, judging by how the American side is preparing for it.
So it’s unlikely that anyone divided anything in Ukraine, but, in any case, we understand that the fate of the war in Donbass, the fate of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the future of Ukrainian politicians, has long been decided not in Ukraine, but in direct negotiations between Washington and Moscow.
Valentin Filippov : I liked the idea that Volker is now a lobbyist for Ukraine in the US. So, are you implying that some Ukrainian forces simply hired him?
Vladimir Kornilov : Yes, basically. I don't think he's particularly hiding it. He was truly perceived as a kind of master of Ukraine; his word meant something. You remember, in December, he declared that there was no need to pass any laws, and they just ignored him and moved on. In this regard, he's been doing this for a long time now, yes... look at all his tweets, all his statements. It's essentially an attempt to ask Washington, to ask members of Congress to allocate additional funds, to allocate additional aid...
There were various rumors that his company was interested in visits from Poroshenko, now probably Zelensky, to the United States of America. I don’t know how reliable these rumors are, but, nevertheless, all his behavior now seems to be exactly that.
Look, Bolton and Volcker posted a photo together somewhere in Washington. Such photos are usually posted when some foreign representative arrives. It was as if they met for the first time, got acquainted, and Volker, such an ambassador of Ukraine, met with a high-ranking official there. In my opinion, he is already perceived in Washington not as a special representative of the United States, but as a person, a messenger from the Ukrainian government.
Valentin Filippov : Well, that is, even these places are starting to be taken over by foreigners.
Vladimir Kornilov : Well, my God, but they themselves don't know how to do anything. If they can't appoint the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Valentin Filippov : I was just thinking that if Trump really does take money for meetings with himself through intermediaries, I can imagine how Zelenskyy will be blown away the first time in his life he pays for going somewhere and telling someone something.
Vladimir Kornilov : Well, Trump might need a meeting with Zelensky. You'll notice that whenever Trump plans to meet with Putin or cross paths somewhere, he usually arranges these short meetings with some Ukrainian figures, to show off, "You accuse me of having ties to Russia, but I actually met with Ukraine." But you, the mainstream media, somehow missed this.
Moreover, you remember the meetings with Ukrainian figures. When Klimkin was not even allowed to sit down, they quickly photographed him in front of Trump for the sake of Trump’s tweet, and took him somewhere far away. Or the same visit of Poroshenko.
So I do not rule out that they will meet with Zelensky without charging him colossal sums. Although, I think that Volker will find a way to offer his services here too and, you see, will play around for the occasion.
Valentin Filippov : Okay. Thank you very much, bye, goodbye.
Vladimir Kornilov : Don't get sick.
English version :: Read in English: Who shot down the Boeing? – Vladimir Kornilov on the machinations surrounding the investigation