Wasn't he already banned at the last summit event?

Does nothing to change the Russians' geostrategic interests in the region. That the BRICS states stick with him and allowed negotiations on an anti-dollar coalition coming to a successful end, says all one needs to know.

That it was the rebel side doing the shot, seems to be no longe rin serious doubt. The only questions that remains whether the launcher was delivered by Russia, or conquered from the Ukrainian army, and whether the firing crew got training in the present by Russian specialists, or is formed of veterans knowing the system from their active service time.

Note to pro-Russian rebels, making yourself look even more guilty than you already are is fail-politick.

Meanwhile in Russia:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/...nian?bftw=main

Seems like RT is the Fox News of Russia...wonder what the CNN is? :haha:

The Ukrainians are claiming to have captured two of the three people who fired the missile:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-1...border/5608744

Is Ivan the mad in that capture?

Shouldn't be too hard to find out. The region where the plain went down is a war zone.
Recon and Intel would be at a very high level right around the clock.
Someone has seen something.

Delivered by Russia? Well since it's russian built it had to have been delivered at some stage.


http://static01.mediaite.com/med/wp-...60-650x433.jpg

https://static-ssl.businessinsider.c...20smallest.gif

delivering is one thing. (not that much important).
The other is who operated them - from what I heard, it takes more than a year to train someone in operating these babies.
Go figure.

Whether they will to reveal their recce skills by showing what they know, is something different. Likely leading to politicians claiming that "we know", without proving it by robust evidence.

Lets not mess that one up, else we end up like the Americans in Iraq 2003 - claiming they found traces of chemical weapons and that there have been weapons and hoaa - weapons! , while nobody ever had denied that Iraq had chemicals for sure years before the invasion - and got rid of them years before the invasion. Ukraine is known to operate around 60 Buk systems.

BTW, my NATO reference was misled, it seems. Since the M1 and M2 versions were introduced for the Buk, NATO has relabelled the Buk as SA-17 Grizzly (Gollum for the navy version). A new model, the M3, is entering production this year.

Sadly I think we're going to see a lot of that kind of thing over the coming weeks, with the west saying 'We know the pro-Russian seperatists did it' and Russia saying 'We know the Ukrainians did it' and both sides chasing each others tails until its forgotten about...likely when something large explodes in Gaza.

BTW, the Ukraine has claimed that all 60 of its Buk systems are accounted for, so I expect the inspectors will likely want to count them at some point, if they only find 55 then...

Often overlooked: the company of Malaysian Air has suffered to total losses in short time, and is now in economically troubled waters. Many business insiders say it is done. That's a lot of families and employees loosing their jobs and financial basis.

Is it impious to mention that, compared to those who mourn losses in lives? No, it is not. For the families in Malaysia the problems are as real as for the families in Netherlands, Germany, and elsewhere. Different, but real.

Since I do not give the Ukrainian "government" any more credibility than the politicians in Moscow or the mob bosses in Donezk and Luhansk, their declaration that they do not miss any missile is as trustworthy for me like Putin claiming something, anything. The lie is an opportunist by nature. What Kiew wants is the same what Georgia wanted in 2006: the West entering war with Russia.

Wait until the association process between Ukraine and not the EU, but the NATO starts to get formalised. That will become a big fun! After all that American plan was what got the show started in last autumn. And the Ukraine will not survive that in its current format. Moscow will rip it into two parts at least.

The West still thinks it is completely innocent in all this. It never was. Chances are without that secret diplomatic process of turning the Ukraine into a NATO member the war of today would not got started, and the Crimean would still belong to the Ukraine. After all, the economical costs for Moscow are immense. The intention to push Ukraine into NATO - became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

is fecit cui prodest, how the romans used to say.
but my bet is stupidity and traditional ruthlesness of russian cossack drunkard scum

Well Saddam himself denied that he had gotten rid of them and he was hardly nobody.

That's like saying Japan was forced into attacking Pearl Harbor by US sanctions. Baloney. Contrary to whatever Putin may believe, Ukraine is a sovereign nation and can join any alliance it damn well pleases. Russia's reaction to that is their own fault. Putin bears full responsibility.