"The Russian Federation remains alone"

Relatives of the dead passengers of the MN17 flight - on the decision of the International Civil Aviation Organization to recognize Russia as responsible for the disaster

On May 12, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) officially recognized Russia responsible for the collapse of the Boeing of the Malaysian Boeing over Donbass in July 2014. The next day, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that he refused to recognize the decision of the IKAO on Russia's involvement in the crash of MN17.

The official document with the presentation of actual and legal reasons that led to the conclusions of the Council will be published over the next weeks. While there are no other details, the Novyevropa turned to Pete Pluhu, the chairman of the MN17 disaster, created by the relatives of the dead funds of the disaster. According to Plukh, the fund considered the Council decision by the key step to the international recognition of Russia's actions and its destructive position in the disaster. Now, the interlocutor of Novo-Europe believes, the Russian Federation may face even greater international isolation.

The decision of the ICAO council is very important for us, relatives of the dead.

In 2018, the Netherlands and Australia officially assigned responsibility for Russia for its role in knocking down the MH17 flight. Diplomatic negotiations with Russia ended in nothing, because Russia unilaterally stopped them. The next step was the ICAO procedure, but here Russia unilaterally left the negotiations. Russia was given the opportunity to protect itself from accusations, but it did not do this. The IKAO Council was right for the consideration and issued a verdict on May 12.

Now there is a decision of the ICAO, which is part of the United Nations and standing guard of international aviation. This is an important step towards assessing the international community of the criminal actions of Russia against innocent civilians and the disrespectful, denying and false position of the Russian government in the MH17 case. It is extremely important that the countries who, through violence make civil aviation unsafe, do not get away with it.

In 2022, the Netherlands court ruled that Russia really played a role in knocking down the MH17 flight, and sentenced three suspects to a lifelong opinion. The ICAO Council will follow negotiations on the restoration of justice. Especially now, when Russia rejected the decision of the IKAO council, I do not believe that negotiations on the restoration of justice will be successful and that Russia will generally take part in them. These negotiations will include compensation for damage, since the Netherlands incurred very large expenses in the MH17 case (almost 200 million euros to date).

It is very doubtful that Russia will ever sit at the negotiating table; Until now, she consistently denied her guilt and occupied an obstructionist position. Even the International Court does not have means of enforcement. Perhaps diplomatic pressure and/or arrest of Russian assets will give some results. But let me clearly declare: this is not about money, but about the truth, responsibility and justice. And about the security of civil aviation in the future.

If Russia continues to prevent this process, it may lose the right to vote in ICAO. This will be a serious face loss. Perhaps the further isolation of Russia in the international community will force Russians to think twice.

In addition to the proceedings in ICAO, the trial is also being carried out in the European Court of Human Rights, and we expect that in the near future the court will make a decision on Russia's responsibility. I am sure that the court decision will comply with the decisions of the IKAO and the Dutch court. Russia will undoubtedly reject this, but the fact remains: the Dutch court, the European court and ICAO made unambiguous decisions indicating that the Russian Federation remains alone.