The Kremlin today refuted the conclusions of the prosecutor’s office of the international commission investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Prosecutors in The Hague said yesterday they have “strong evidence” that Putin authorized the use of the Russian Buk missile system that shot down an airliner over eastern Ukraine in 2014.

In Moscow’s first reaction to the allegations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia “cannot accept” the results of the investigation because it was not involved in the process. He also said prosecutors had not publicly presented evidence.

Flight MH17 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was hit by a Buk missile while flying over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, killing all 298 people on board, including the crew, including 196 Dutch.

At the time, Russian-backed separatists were fighting Ukrainian forces for control of the eastern province of Donbass.

Prosecutors cited wiretapping, but said there was insufficient evidence to conclude that Putin or other Russian officials were directly involved in the criminal conviction, and dropped the investigation.

Russia has repeatedly denied its involvement in the downing of flight MH17. Peskov today rejected the arguments presented by the investigation.

“We know that a recording of an alleged telephone conversation has been made public … in which there is not a word about weapons. Even if we accept that this conversation is real… there is not a word about weapons in it. No one else has published anything, so you can say anything,” Peskov told reporters.

Asked specifically about the claim that Putin authorized the shipment of Buk missile systems to Moscow-friendly separatists in Ukraine, Peskov said: “Russia was not involved in this investigation, so we cannot accept its results, especially at a time when there is no grounds for making such statements public.”

The Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Ukraine and Malaysia set up a joint investigation team after the plane crash to find the perpetrators and provide evidence for criminal charges.

In November, a Dutch court found two former Russian intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader guilty of facilitating the use of a missile system to shoot down an airliner. The two men convicted in absentia have not been arrested.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.