Interfax: Russia air defence firm denies its MH17 claims based on fake satellite photos

(Interfax – June 2, 2015)

The evidence presented by Russian air defence systems manufacturer Almaz-Antey to show that flight MH17 was shot down by a Ukrainian missile was based only on preliminary data from the Dutch investigation, said Yan Novikov, the company’s general director, as reported by privately-owned Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN on 2 June.

Novikov was commenting on media reports that Almaz-Antey had presented fake satellite photos at a news conference in Moscow earlier on 2 June.

“Reports disseminated by a number of media outlets on 2 June that the concern used fake photos as evidence about the crash of the Malaysia Airlines aircraft last summer in the skies over southeast Ukraine have nothing to do with reality,” Interfax-AVN quoted Novikov as saying, citing a statement from the company’s press service.

He said that Almaz-Antey was ready to provide the material of the presentation for all who have any doubts about the investigation carried out by the company’s specialists.

“We are also ready to carry out a full-scale live experiment: to detonate a 9Ì38Ì1 missile warhead as it draws near to an aircraft, as indicated in our presentation,” Novikov said.

“Claims that missiles of this type were present at 9 May victory parades [on Red Square] in recent years are not true either,” he said.

“The latest air defence systems Buk-M2 with 9M317 missiles have taken part in parades,” he said.

At the news conference earlier, Novikov had said that evidence suggested that flight MH17 was shot down by a 9M38M1 missile fired from a Buk-M1 launcher. This missile could not have been supplied by Russia as Buk-M1 was taken out of production in 1999, he said.