Russian citizen and former top warlord of Russian-backed militants in Donbas Igor Girkin (Strelkov) admitted in an interview with journalist Dmytro Gordon that he was charged in the case of the crash of the Malaysian Boeing MH17 shot down in Donbas in 2014, Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist of the Bellingcat international group, has said.
“For the investigation of MH17, it is very important that he [Strelkov during the interview] did not deny the authenticity of the interceptions [negotiations] in which he took part. He practically admitted on the air: yes, a few weeks before the downing [of the aircraft of МН17 flight], he asked the Kremlin through the so-called head of Crimea to be given air defense systems along with the crew,” Grozev said during an interview with Ukraine 24 TV channel.
“That is, he really confessed to what he was specifically accused of in the Netherlands. And they accuse him not of pressing the button, but of ordering and creating the conditions for shooting down the plane,” Grozev said.
The investigator believes that the information voiced by Girkin in the interview can be used in the process against the latter. He also emphasized that part of the statements regarding support for the mercenaries by the Russian side in this interview was made publicly for the first time and will be very useful for the investigation.
“In these conversations … there is enough material that can be very useful in court. I am not familiar with the preparation. I don’t know how the preparations for this conversation were made. But for me as an investigator and lawyer it’s obvious: some of the questions were prepared specifically for this purpose, so that Girkin would get caught on certain things. These were well-planned questions and not only journalistic one,” Grozev said.
According to the Kyiv-based Gordon ezine, the Bellingcat representative noted that sometimes law enforcement officers turn to reporters with a request to transmit recordings of such interviews to them.
Earlier, Gordon said that he did an interview with Girkin with the assistance of Ukrainian intelligence services, and that flash drives with materials were transferred to The Hague for use as evidence in the trial of the annexation of Crimea and military aggression in Donbas.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) emphasized that they considered the interview as possible additional provocations of Russian aggression against Ukraine, but the interview was the initiative of Gordon himself.
