Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 Crashes in Ukraine

Source: Russian online trolls influence discussions on MH17, anti-Islam PVV in Netherlands: report

Russian online trolls influence discussions on MH17, anti-Islam PVV in Netherlands: report
By Janene Pieters on August 29, 2018 - 09:24

Russian trolls are trying to influence Dutch discussions on social media with fake accounts, De Groene Amsterdammer reports (in Dutch) based on its own research. These trolls show support for anti-Islam party PVV and spread pro-Russian information when it comes to the MH17 disaster, according to the weekly newspaper.

De Groene Amsterdammer researched more than three million tweets posted between 2012 and early this year by around 3 thousand trolls. These include a few dozen accounts that post Dutch language tweets. Virtually all the Russian trolls' attention in the Netherlands goes to right-wing voices on Twitter, including Telegraaf columnist Wierd Duk, Metro columnist Ebru Umar, and activist Joost Niemoller.

The PVV can count on support from the Russian trolls. The newspaper found around 400 tweets praising the PVV and leader Geert Wilders, and sharing tweets by PVV members like Martin Bosma, Toon van Dijk, Marjolein Faber and Wilders himself. Other Dutch political parties and politicians get little to no attention, according to the newspaper.

Some three thousand tweets are about the MH17 disaster, in Dutch, English, German, and especially Russian. Alternative theories, like there was a bomb on board or the disaster was a false flag operation, are spread. Some tweets say that Ukraine paid 298 million dollars to the victims' next of kin and that Russia was already proven innocent. The accounts also come up with accusations against Boeing, the manufacturer of the Malaysia Airlines plane. Tweets about incidents around Boeing, like labor disputes and lawsuits, are massively shared.

De Groene Amsterdammer also found dozens of fake tweets about demonstrations by Dutch-Turks during a controversial visit by a Turkish minister in Rotterdam last year.

Account @AmelieBaldwin is used as an example. This account spread reports about Sylvana Simons, the D66 and 'gutmenschen' - an insulting name for politically correct people - in Dutch. At the same time, the account also shared Philippine, Chinese and Greek tweets. And the account profile describes 'Amelie' as a patriotic American who supports the army and firearm possession. The account has been suspended by Twitter.

Earlier this year NRC also reported that Russian trolls are active in the Netherlands. Minister Kasja Ollongren of Home Affairs also warned that Russia may be trying to influence the public debate in the Netherlands.
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Source: Quarter of trees in MH17 forest monument dead

Quarter of trees in MH17 forest monument dead
By Janene Pieters on September 13, 2018 - 15:10

nationaal_monument_mh17.jpg
National MH17 Monument in Vijfhuizen near Schiphol. Photo: Erikt / Wikimedia Commons


Eighty of the 298 trees planted at the National MH17 Monument in Vijfhuizen Park next to Schiphol Airport, have died. One tree was planted for each victim who died in the disaster with the Malaysia Airlines flight.

"We already noticed it this spring, when most of the trees started to grow, a part stopped", Sjaak de Ligt, coordinator fo the MH17 Foundation, said to NH Radio. "We immediately informed the relatives of the trees in question that something was wrong with the tree growth." He called these conversations difficult. "People identify themselves with the tree."

An investigation will be launched next month to find out what went wrong with the trees that died. If all goes well, new trees will be planted in December so that each victim will have a tree again.

Flight MH17 was shot down over Eastern Ukraine on July 17th, 2014. All 298 people on board were killed, including 196 Dutch.
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Thanks for Posting and adding updates on the MH17 crash, Palinurus. :-) Very much appreciated!

17.09.2018 - New Details in MH17 Case: Russian Defense Ministry Holds Press Conference
Russian Defense Ministry Reveals New Details in MH17 Crash in Ukraine (VIDEO)

The Russian Ministry of Defense is holding a press conference, during which new details will be revealed about the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 that crashed in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Four years ago, on July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the city of Donetsk.

All 298 passengers and crew on board the aircraft died. Kiev accused local militias of downing the aircraft, while they said that had no weapons capable of downing such a plane.

Follow Sputnik's live feed to find out more.

15:25
JIT Says Takes Note of Information Presented by Russia on Monday on MH17 Crash
"The JIT has taken note of the information that has been publicly presented by the authorities of the Russian Federation for the first time today ... The JIT will meticulously study the materials presented today as soon as the Russian Federation makes the relevant documents available to the JIT as requested in May 2018 and required by UNSC resolution 2166," the statement of the Joint Investigation Team read.

15:20
Claims of Russian Buk System’s Involvement in Downing MH17 Not Confirmed – Investigators
"We would like to say that the claims of the involvement of the Buk missile system, which belongs to an air defense regiment of the Russian Armed Forces, in downing the Boeing have not been confirmed," Russian Investigative Committee's spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.

15:26
1019097049.jpg

© AP Photo / Peter Dejong

13:59
Ukraine's Ownership of Missile That Downed MH17 Should Be Raised at UN – Russian Lawmaker
"I believe that we should move beyond the Defense Ministry's statement, the issue should be raised at the UN level," Frants Klintsevich, a member of the Defense Committee of the upper house of Russian parliament, told Sputnik.

13:06
Video Showing Russia's Buk System in Ukraine is Animation Based on One Photo
"The images of a tractor, a trailer, and a Buk were built into the image of the corresponding section of the motor road during the production of this video... Many signs of falsification of the video recording were also revealed in an episode showing the movement of the Buk in Lugansk," Russian military reported.

12:54
Missile Wreckage Found at MH17 Crash Site Helped to Establish Its Number
"On May 24, 2018, a briefing was held by representatives of the Joint Investigation Team, during which fragments of the engine and nozzle of the missile of the Buk missile system were demonstrated. According to the investigators, the Malaysian MH17 Boeing was downed on July 17, 2014. At the same time, attention was drawn to the numbers of these components of the 9M38 missile, which you can see on the slide," Lt. Gen Nikolai Parshin said.

1027861583.jpg

© Sputnik / Mikhail Voskresenskiy

12:33
Russian Military Presents Audio Proof of Ukraine's Links to MH17 Downing
"We have an audio recording of telephone conversations of Ukrainian servicemen made in 2016. An analysis of its content confirms earlier made conclusions about the direct involvement of the Ukrainian side in the crash of the Malaysian Boeing," Konashenkov said.
He said the voice on the audio recording belongs to Ukrainian Armed Forces Col. Ruslan Grinchak.

The Russian Defense Ministry warned that Ukraine could destroy documentation for the missile that shot down flight MH17 in order to conceal the truth.

12:23
Missile That Downed MH17 Was Delivered to Ukraine and Never Transported to Russia
"So the missile ... on December 29, 1986, was sent by rail to the military unit 20152. It is well known that the missile was received by the military unit," Parshin said at a briefing.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also stated that the Buk missile that the regiment armed with the missile that knocked down the MH17 flight was repeatedly involved in the so-called anti-terrorist operation in Donetsk and Lugansk.

1027861311.jpg

© Sputnik / Andrei Stenin

"Separately, I will stop on the military unit 20152, where the missile with the number 886847349 was put, its real name is 221 anti-aircraft missile brigade ... By the decree of the president of Ukraine this unit was renamed into 223 anti-aircraft missile regiment. Currently, this unit is located in the city of Stryi of the Lviv region, they still have the Buk systems. It is noteworthy, that units of the 223 regiment, since 2014, have repeatedly been involved in the so-called anti-terror operation in Donetsk and Lugansk regions ," Lt. Gen. Parshin said.

13:01
Missile Used in Downing of MH17 in Ukraine Was Built at Plant in Moscow Region
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported Monday that the documentation for the Buk missile is still stored at the Dolgoprudny plant, where it was built. The ministry also announced that the Joint International Investigation Team can examine declassified documents on the missile, as Russia had sent the new data on the issue to the Netherlands.

"This is a set of technical documentation that is filled at the manufacturing plant for each manufactured product and stored there, regardless of whether it is in Russia or abroad. Among the documents presented to you is a passport for the nozzle cluster 9D13105000 No. 8-30-113," Lt. Gen. Nikolai Parshin, the head of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate told a media briefing.

1045785156.jpg

© AP Photo / Peter Dejong

The Defense Ministry also showed the document for the engine of the missile 9D131 with the serial number 8869032.

"As can be seen on the slide, the numbers of components of the 9M38 missile and the number of units noted in the technical documentation stored at the Dolgoprudny Research and Production Enterprise and those presented at the briefing today, are identical," Parshin said.

12:08
Videos Used By International Commission as Evidence of Russia's Involvement in MH17 Case Are Fake
"The Joint Investigation Team presented video materials to prove that a self-propelled firing system of the Russian 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade was allegedly present and involved in the tragedy of the Malaysian Boeing on the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Russian experts with high qualifications conducted a study of these videos and concluded that they were falsified," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov stated.
 
Mon Sep 17, 2018 - Russia: Serial Numbers of Missile That Downed MH17 Show It Was Produced in 1986, Owned by Ukraine
Farsnews

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The Russian military said the serial numbers found on debris of the Buk missile which downed Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over Eastern Ukraine show it was produced in 1986, adding that the projectile was owned by Ukraine.

There are two serial numbers found on fragments of the missile, which shot down the passenger airliner in June 2014 according to an international team of investigators led by the Netherlands. The numbers were marked on the engine and the nozzle of the missile, RT reported.

The Russian military on Monday said they had traced them to a missile which had the producer serial number 8868720.

Speaking to journalists, Gen. Nikolay Parshin showed a document trail of the Buk missile. According to the documents, some of which have been declassified for the presentation, it was produced at a military plant in Dolgoprudny in the Moscow region in 1986.

The missile was shipped from the plant on December 29, 1986 and delivered to military unit 20152 located in what is now Ukraine. It is now called 223rd anti-aircraft defense regiment of the Ukrainian armed forces, the report added.

The unit took part in Kiev's crackdown on rebels in Eastern Ukraine in June 2014, the general stressed.

The evidence disproves the accusations by Ukraine and some other parties, which claim that a missile fired by a launcher, secretly delivered from Russia, was responsible for the downing of MH17, the Ministry of Defense report said.

All the materials have been sent to the Dutch investigators, the Russian military added.

The Russian military also challenges video footage used by the UK-based group Bellingcat, which calls itself a citizen journalism organization, to back its allegations about the delivery of the Buk launcher from Russia. The Defense Ministry showed a video clip with some of the footage, highlighting inconsistencies, which it said proved that the footage had been manipulated to place images of the launcher into background which were not in the original.

The Bellingcat investigation was featured in the latest update by Dutch prosecutors involved in the MH17 investigation, prompting the Russian military to study it in detail, they stated. The Russian video showed an example of how an Abrams tank can be shown to be carried by a trailer in the streets of Ukraine in the same way.

The third part of the presentation was what the Russian officials called a record of intercepted communications of Ukrainian officials discussing, in 2016, the risk of flying through restricted airspace over Ukraine. Among a barrage of complaints one phrase says unless the restrictions are respected "we'll f***ing f**k up another Malaysian Boeing".

The Russian military say the complaints came from Col. Ruslan Grinchak, who serves in a brigade responsible for radar control of the Ukrainian airspace. His unit tracked the MH17 flight in 2014, so he may have information which is not publicly available about the disaster.

Gen. Igor Konashenkov, who hosted the briefing, said that Ukraine failed to provide radar data from its stations to the Dutch investigators. He also suggested that archive documents from the Ukrainian unit, which received the Buk missile back in 1986, would be of use to the probe, unless Kiev claims that they are no longer available. He stressed rules are in place which mean that such documents should still be stored in Ukraine.

The Russian military added that they had no evidence to disprove a scenario, involving the Ukrainian rebels capturing the missile from the Ukrainian army, but pointed out that Ukrainian officials publicly denied anything like this had ever happened.

Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, falling in the rebel-held part of the country. The crash claimed the lives of 283 passengers and 15 crew members, most of them Dutch nationals. Russia was blamed by Western media in the first days after the tragedy, even before any evidence had been collected on the ground.

The Joint Investigation Team, which is lead by the Netherlands, includes Ukraine, but not Russia.

Moscow believes that the investigation is biased, failing to obtain all necessary evidence from Ukraine and relying on questionable sources while ignoring evidence provided by Russia, which doesn't fit the theory favored by Kiev and its foreign sponsors.
 
The following contains the first comments in the Netherlands on the above (thanks angelburst29) available in English:

Scepticism greets Russian 'evidence' that MH17 was shot down by Ukrainian forces - DutchNews.nl

Skepticism greets Russian ‘evidence’ that MH17 was shot down by Ukrainian forces
September 17, 2018

Russia has claimed to have found evidence disputing the conclusion of the Joint Investigation Team into flight MH17 that the plane was brought down by pro-Russian separatist fighters in Ukraine.

At a press conference in Moscow [Dutch only] on Monday, spokesmen for the defense ministry said the BUK missile which struck the civilian plane was made in Russia in 1986, but had ended up in Ukrainian military’s hands after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The Dutch public prosecution service responded with a strongly worded statement [in English] which accused Russia of withholding information or providing false details, in contravention of UN Security Council resolution 2166.

‘From the start of the investigation until today, the JIT has always carefully analyzed and processed the information provided by the Russian Federation,’ the statement said. ‘In doing so, the JIT has found that information from the Russian Ministry of Defense previously presented to the public and provided to the JIT was factually inaccurate on several points.’

All 298 people on board flight MH17 died when it was brought down over eastern Ukraine on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014. The passengers included 196 Dutch nationals.

Secret evidence

The Russian defense ministry said it had passed evidence in secret to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which is looking into the disaster. But the prosecution service said the Russians had failed to provide key information about the serial numbers found on recovered missile parts.

The JIT found that the missile was transported by the 53rd brigade of the Russian army in Kursk to Ukrainian rebels in Donetsk and fired from separatist-held territory. In May the Netherlands announced it was holding Russia responsible for its role in the disaster. It is not believed that the civilian airliner was targeted deliberately.

Eliot Higgins, who runs independent research group Bellingcat, pointed out on Twitter that satellite images show the convoy taking the BUK missile from Kursk to Donetsk.

The Russian MoD doesn’t seem to realize the BUK convoy seen in this video was captured by a passing satellite #MH17 pic.twitter.com/rZFzZgghvF —
Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) September 17, 2018

Two weeks before the tragedy the Donetsk People’s Republic, which was allied with Russia, reported it had seized control of an air defense base with anti-aircraft BUK missiles.

Alternative theories

Monday’s press conference is the latest in a series of alternative explanations for the shooting down of flight MH17 by the Kremlin, which denies any responsibility for the disaster. Previous versions have claimed that the aircraft was shot down by a fighter jet, that it was blown up by a missile intended for President Putin’s private jet, and that the plane had been filled with dead bodies and then shot down on purpose to cover up another unnamed atrocity. The last theory bears an uncanny resemblance to the plot of the first episode of the second season of the BBC mystery drama Sherlock, which was first broadcast in 2012.

The latest counter-offensive coincides with the revelation last week that two Russian spies had been detained last week in The Hague in connection with an alleged plot to infiltrate the Spiez laboratory in Switzerland, which is used by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The NRC [in Dutch] and Swiss paper TagesAnzeiger [in German] reported that at the time of the botched raid the lab was analysing data related to the poison gas attacks by the Syrian regime as well as the nerve agent attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury last March.
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Here's a video summary of yesterday's Russian MoD presentation, posted by Palinurus above. It pretty much proves Ukraine did it (though, as we suspect, prolly with outside help):

 
The following news item is only available in Dutch:

Cookies op AD.nl | AD.nl [ad.nl/buitenland/nieuw-overleg-over-mh17-in-new-york~a33971fa/]

Translation:

New consultation about MH17 in New York

The foreign ministers of the countries that are investigating the downing of aircraft MH17 in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) will meet next Tuesday in New York. They meet in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.

Hanneke Keultjes 20-09-18, 18:19

That is what Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs said today during a debate on the UN. Blok also announced that during his speech to the UN on Wednesday 26 September, Prime Minister Mark Rutte again will be calling for full cooperation on the UN resolution on MH17. In this resolution the UN Security Council condemned the downing and stated that the guilty parties should be brought to justice.

Security Council

This year the Netherlands is a member of the UN Security Council, the most important consultative body of the UN. Now that the year is three quarters over, the House of Representatives wants to know what the Netherlands plans do for the rest of this year. Several members of parliament asked about the Dutch efforts around MH17.

During the downing of Malaysia Airlines' plane over Ukraine on 17 July 2014, all 298 occupants were killed. The majority of the victims, 196, came from the Netherlands. The research presented by JIT in May showed that the aircraft was shot down by a BUK rocket from Russia. The Netherlands and Australia subsequently held Russia liable.

Rocket

Russia denies any involvement at all. Just this week, the country came up with information that the rocket was delivered to Ukraine by the Ministry of Defense and then never went back to Russian territory afterwards.

The foreign ministers of the JIT countries - the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine - meet more often around the UN General Assembly. During a debate on Ukraine this spring, the countries last spoke to each other in New York. The [Dutch] Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not want to reveal what is on the agenda this time.


Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
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Source: Netherlands, Australia to discuss MH17 accountability with Russia

Netherlands, Australia to discuss MH17 accountability with Russia
By Janene Pieters on September 26, 2018 - 10:50

The Netherlands and Australia want to start negotiating with Russia "in the foreseeable future" about the country's accountability in the downing of flight MH17, Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs said after meeting with his Australian colleague Marise Payne in New York, NOS reports [in Dutch].

Australia and the Netherlands officially held Russia accountable for its role in the MH17 disaster - providing the missile that shot down the plane - in May of this year. The two countries then also asked Russia for a meeting to discuss the country's liability. Now they are in contact with Russia through diplomatic channels, Blok said.

Earlier in the day Blok and Payne also met with their colleagues from Malaysia, Ukraine and Belgium, the other three countries in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that is investigating the disaster. They talked about the criminal investigation into the perpetrators responsible for the downing. "Today it again appeared that the JIT countries are united in their goal: to discover the truth about MH17 and to prosecute the perpetrators. In this the independent investigation of the JIT receives our unconditional support", Blok said.

Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17th, 2014. All 298 people on board, including 196 Dutch, were killed. Investigation by the Dutch Safety Board and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) so far revealed that the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down by a BUK missile system from the 53rd Anti-aircraft Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, fired from a field in Ukraine that was under the control of pro-Russian separatists at the time.

The JIT tracked a convoy of nearly 50 military vehicles, including the BUK that shot down MH17, from a 53rd Brigade parking area in Kursk to the border of Ukraine between June 23rd and 25th, 2014 - a few weeks before MH17 was shot down.
Last week Russia held a press conference in which the country said that the BUK missile was indeed made in Russia, but was in Ukrainian hands at the time of the disaster. Russia has been pointing the finger to Ukraine since the disaster happened.
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Source: Dutch prime minister calls for 'constructive multilateralism' in UN speech - DutchNews.nl

September 27, 2018

Rutte-addresses-UN.jpg

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte addresses the UN. Photo: UN.org


Prime minister Mark Rutte has used his speech [in English; full text] at the United Nations general assembly in New York to call for more international cooperation in the hunt for the perpetrators of the MH17 plane disaster.

‘MH17 remains an open wound for my country and for all grieving nations who had nationals on board,’ Rutte said. He also referred to the May report by the joint investigation team which pointed the figure at a Russian army brigade in Kursk.

That evidence, Rutte said, had strengthened the Netherlands’ conviction that the complete truth needed to be established in the interest of those who died and their families. ‘The full truth must be uncovered, justice served and responsibility accepted,’ Rutte said.

In his speech, Rutte also said he was concerned about the way some countries were putting their own interests first and are no longer to prepared to reach compromises with other nations.

‘More and more often, sadly, compromise is being rejected in favor of polarization and perceived self-interest,’ the Dutch prime minister said. ‘We are witnessing a worrisome trend: some countries are shifting from a constructive to a combative approach in the multilateral environment.’

‘And when the multilateral system becomes paralyzed, it is innocent people who suffer. Syria is a case in point,’ Rutte said.

The prime minister also called for more international cooperation to prevent climate change. ‘The world wide water crisis has implication for all of us, due to drought, flooding and water pollution. That is evident in the case of the Netherlands,’ he said, adding that Schiphol is the only airport in the world which is below sea level.
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Similar but extended coverage here:

Dutch PM's UN speech in stark contrast to Trump's
 
Source: Russia willing to discuss MH17, still blaming Ukraine

Russia willing to discuss MH17, still blaming Ukraine
By Janene Pieters on October 10, 2018 - 14:30

Russia for the first time said it is willing to talk to the Netherlands and Australia about the flight MH17 disaster in a statement the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs made to RTL Nieuws [Dutch only].

In May the Netherlands and Australia officially held the Russians accountable for their role in the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight - providing the BUK missile system that shot down MH17 - and requested a consultation. This is the first time that Russia publicly stated that they want to talk, though they're still pointing the finger of guilt at Ukraine.

"We are prepared to discuss with the Netherlands and Australia the entire complex of problems associated with the investigation into the 'MH17 case', partly with the goal of looking professionally at the responsibility of Ukraine", the Russian Foreign Ministry said to RTL Nieuws.

Behind the scenes there has been contact between the Netherlands and Russia about accountability for the MH17 disaster, a spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said to the Telegraaf [Dutch only]. "Because we do not want to harm the process, we can not respond to every diplomatic step." At a UN summit in New York last month, Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs expressed hope that these negotiations with Russia will start "in the foreseeable future".

Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17th, 2014. All 298 people on board, including 196 Dutch, were killed. Investigation by the Dutch Safety Board and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) so far revealed that the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down by a BUK missile system from the 53rd Anti-aircraft Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, fired from a field in Ukraine that was under the control of pro-Russian separatists at the time.

The JIT tracked a convoy of nearly 50 military vehicles, including the BUK that shot down MH17, from a 53rd Brigade parking area in Kursk to the border of Ukraine between June 23rd and 25th, 2014 - a few weeks before MH17 was shot down.

In September Russia held a press conference in which the country said that the BUK missile was indeed made in Russia, but was in Ukrainian hands at the time of the disaster. Russia has been pointing the finger to Ukraine since the disaster happened. The country also repeatedly called the investigation into the disaster biased and unreliable.
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Source: Russian trolls posted 1,400 tweets about MH17: report

Russian trolls posted 1,400 tweets about MH17: report
By Janene Pieters on October 18, 2018 - 08:22

Twitter accounts run by Russian trolls from St. Petersburg tweeted about the MH17 disaster 1,400 times, according to an analysis by NOS [in Dutch] of a database of tweets released by Twitter on Wednesday. The database consists of 9 million tweets from Russian trolls and another 1 million tweets by Iranian trolls, including re-tweets. The tweets were posted by 3,814 accounts that Twitter linked to the Internet Research Agency based in St. Petersburg. Another 770 accounts are based in Iran.

In total NOS found 2,693 tweets which included the word 'MH17', including re-tweets. The first tweet was posted on July 17th, 2014 - the day that MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine - the last on May 28th of this year. The Iranian trolls mention MH17 in 157 tweets.

The most shared tweet, 283 re-tweets, was written in Russian on the day that the Joint Investigation Team announced that the BUK missile that shot down MH17 came from Russia and was fired in a Ukrainian field under the control of pro-Russian separatists at the time. "Main conclusion of the MH17 report: we point to Russia as the guilty side, but as long as we do not have all the details, wait until 2018", the tweet read, according to the broadcaster.

This tweet was posted by an account with the username "DonetskNovosti". The account has over 45,000 followers. This account also posted the second most shared tweet, 202 re-tweets. It read: "MH17 was shot down above the village of Brabovo. Those who have brains in their head and not sawdust understands that Ukraine shot it down."

Apart from MH17, the Netherlands does not seem to be of much interest to the Russian trolls, according to NOS. PVV leader Geert Wilders was mentioned 245 times. The tweets about the Netherlands are only a fraction of the total 10 million tweets in the database Twitter released.

De Groene Amsterdammer previously also reported that Russia's main interest in the Netherlands is MH17 and Wilders.

Think tank Atlantic Council's digital forensic lab was previously given access to all these tweets. According to the think tank, the vast majority of the tweets were written in Russian. The Russians had "multiple goals", including influencing the U.S. presidential election to prevent Hillary Clinton from winning and polarizing online communities in America. The Iranian trolls mainly propagated messages from the regime abroad. The trolls focused on everyone, irregardless of race, gender, political views or sexual preference. And, the think tank concluded that the trolls had little impact outside the U.S.

Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17th, 2014. All 298 people on board, including 196 Dutch, were killed. Investigation by the Dutch Safety Board and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) so far revealed that the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down by a BUK missile system from the 53rd Anti-aircraft Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, fired from a field in Ukraine that was under the control of pro-Russian separatists at the time.

The JIT tracked a convoy of nearly 50 military vehicles, including the BUK that shot down MH17, from a 53rd Brigade parking area in Kursk to the border of Ukraine between June 23rd and 25th, 2014 - a few weeks before MH17 was shot down. Australia and the Netherlands officially held Russia accountable for its role in the MH17 disaster - providing the missile that shot down the plane - in May of this year.

In September Russia held a press conference in which the country said that the BUK missile was indeed made in Russia, but was in Ukrainian hands at the time of the disaster. Russia has been pointing the finger to Ukraine since the disaster happened. Earlier this month the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it is willing to discuss MH17 liability with the Netherlands, "partly with the goal of looking professionally at the responsibility of Ukraine".
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So called 'cyber war' background info:

Search [search/node/cyber%20war%20russia]
You searched for cyber war russia - DutchNews.nl
 
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