Moscow calls MH17 charges of Russians 'absolutely unfounded'

MOSCOW－Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that it regretted the findings of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash probe and called murder charges against Russian citizens "absolutely unfounded".

Three Russians and a Ukrainian will face murder charges for the 2014 downing of the MH17 jet which killed 298 people, in a trial to start in the Netherlands in March next year, the international Joint Investigation Team said earlier on Wednesday.

The Boeing 777 was traveling between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by a missile over eastern Ukraine.

"Once again, absolutely groundless accusations are being made against the Russian side, aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation in the eyes of the international community", the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

The ministry said information provided by Russia to the investigation team had been ignored.

Russia has long denied all involvement in the downing of the jet.

"You know our attitude toward this investigation. Russia had no opportunity to take part in it, even though it showed initiative from ...the very first days of this tragedy," Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Wednesday.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday also rejected the implication that Russia may have been involved in the downing, and criticized the decision to charge the four as "ridiculous".

"We are very unhappy because from the very beginning it became a political issue on how to accuse Russia of wrongdoing," Mahathir told reporters in the country's administrative capital Putrajaya.

"It is a ridiculous thing. As far as we are concerned we want proof of guilt. So far there is no proof. Only hearsay," he added.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday welcomed the charges, saying: "We call upon Russia to ... ensure that any indicted individuals currently in Russia face justice."

The Dutch-led investigation team on Wednesday said international arrest warrants had been issued for Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko.

Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said the four were to be held responsible for bringing the BUK missile from Russia into eastern Ukraine "even though they have not pushed the button themselves".

"We won't demand their extradition because Russian and Ukrainian law forbids the extradition of their nationals. But we ask Russia once more to cooperate－many of our questions remain unanswered," he told a news conference.

REUTERS - AFP - XINHUA