In video interview, Russian MH17 suspect denies involvement

A suspect charged with involvement in shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 denied involvement in the attack in video interviews played Tuesday in a Dutch courtroom. The recorded comments by Oleg Putalov marked the first time the voice of one of the four suspects charged in the downing of the Boeing 777 has been heard in their trial in absentia. After years of investigations, prosecutors concluded that a Russian-made Buk missile launched from territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels brought down the passenger jet on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board as it was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. An independent Dutch crash investigation earlier reached the same conclusion. Pulatov said he and his forces did not have a missile of the type that prosecutors say brought down the plane and added that he was busy at meetings on the day the plane was shot down and did not see or hear a Buk missile launch. In the interview with his Dutch lawyer that was recorded in Russia, Pulatov said that references to a Buk missile in intercepted communications that are part of prosecutors' evidence are actually deliberate misinformation. “Whenever you hear any kind of nonsense in the conversations intercepted like mentioning the Buk, you may rest assured that that was done for the deception purposes — we wanted to mislead our adversaries,” Pulatov said.<br/>