In a letter to the relatives of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia has called on them to demand transparency, objectivity and efficiency from the Dutch investigation into the tragedy, the TASS news agency reported Tuesday.
The letter from Oleg Storchevoy, deputy head of Rosaviatsia, points out that Russia has repeatedly noted the extraordinary secrecy and bias of the Dutch investigation.
The Netherlands must explain why the technical investigation lasted for so long and resulted in abstract and vague results, Storchevoy said in his letter.
The letter is intended as a response to a letter sent by the families of the victims to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Dutch authorities ignored data provided by the Russian side, according to Storchevoy's letter.
The ill-fated passenger airliner was flying from Amsterdam to the the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur when it crashed in Donetsk in war-torn eastern Ukraine in July 17, 2014. All the passengers on board ?€” most of them Dutch nationals ?€” died.
The plane was downed by a Buk surface-to-air missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists, according to the Dutch investigation.
The Russian manufacturer of the Buk missile system, Almaz-Antey, claims the missile was launched from territory controlled by the Ukrainian army at the time of the shootdown.
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