Russia on Saturday launched a blistering attack on Washington after US President Barack Obama said that “evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile launched from an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine”. Russia has placed a US lawmaker and 12 other people connected with the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq on its list of those banned from entering the country.
In a statement on Saturday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander lukas-hevich said Congressman Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia, was banned in response to the July 2 US ban on Russian Parliament member Adam Delimkhanov. He said Moran had been repeatedly accused of financial misdeeds but did not elaborate.
The other 12, including Guantanamo commander Rear Admiral Richard Butler and lynndie England, a former soldier convicted of abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib, were banned in response to the United States’ adding 12 names in May to the so-called Magnitsky list of Russians sanctioned for human rights violations.
With uncertainty surrounding Malaysian plane crash, there is wide division among the old Soviet bloc. The Poland’s Foreign Minister had sharp words on the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet — blaming the crash on Russia-backed “bandits”. However most of central and eastern Europe leaders withheld judgement, expressing shock but refusing to say more until more facts are in.
The United States on Saturday said that it is not ruling out technical assistance from Russian personnel in operating the surface-to-air missile that downed the plane. For Obama, the downed plane adds new complexity to the US efforts to quell the months-long conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Increasingly stringent economic sanctions imposed by the US and Europe, including a new round of penalties announced a day before the plane was shot down, have done little to change Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approach.
Obama warned Russia anew that the US has the capacity to increase the economic pain, but he outlined no specific potential actions. He did say he saw no U.S. military role in the conflict that has stemmed in part from Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. “This certainly will be a wake-up call for Europe and the world that there are consequences to an escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine - that it is not going to be localized, it is not going to be contained,” Obama said.
Ukraine accused Russia on Saturday of helping separatist rebels destroy evidence at the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines plane shot down in rebel-held territory - a charge the rebels denied. As dozens of victims’ bodies lay in bags by the side of the road baking in the summer heat, international monitors at the crash site on Saturday said they were still being hampered by heavily armed rebels.
“Some of the body bags are open and the damage to the corpses is very, very bad. It is very difficult to look at,” OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw told reporters in a phone call from the site, where the smell of decaying bodies was unmistakable.He said the 24-member delegation was given further access on Saturday to the crash site but their movements were being limited by the rebels. The site sprawls eight square miles (20 square kilometres) across sunflower and wheat fields between two villages in eastern Ukraine.
“We have to be very careful with our movements because of all the security,” Bociurkiw said. “We are unarmed civilians, so we are not in a position to argue with people with heavy arms.”
The rebels are also “seeking large transports to carry away plane fragments to Russia,” the Ukrainian government said on Saturday. In Donetsk, separatist leader Alexander Borodai denied that any bodies had been transferred or that the rebels had in any way interfered with the work of observers. He said he encouraged the involvement of the international community in assisting with the cleanup before the conditions of the bodies worsens significantly.
Ukraine also called on Moscow to insist that the pro-Russia rebels grant international experts the ability to conduct a thorough, impartial investigation into the downing of the plane - echoing a demand that President Barack Obama issued a day earlier from Washington.“The integrity of the site has been compromised, and there are indications that vital evidence has not been preserved in place,” Malaysian Transport Minister liow Tiong lai said at a news conference in Kuala lumpur.
He called for immediate access for Malaysia’s team at the site to retrieve human remains. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in a phone call on Saturday that an independent, international commission led by the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, should be granted swift access to the crash site, said government spokesman Georg Streiter.
In the Netherlands, forensic teams fanned out across the country on Saturday to collect material including DNA samples that will help positively identify the remains of the 192 Dutch victims.
The location of the black boxes remains a mystery and the separatist leadership remained adamant on Saturday that it had not located them. Bociurkiw also said he had received no information on their whereabouts. Aviation experts say, however, not to expect too much from the flight data and cockpit voice recorders in understanding how Flight 17 was brought down.
Poland’s foreign minister had sharp words on the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jumbo jet in Ukraine - blaming the crash on Russia-backed “bandits.” But throughout most of central and eastern Europe, leaders withheld judgment, expressing shock but refusing to say more until more facts are in.
The caution is not surprising: Several former Soviet satellite states have developed closer economic ties to Russia in recent years, making them unwilling to take a strong stand against Moscow in the Ukraine conflict. Though all have condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea, they are divided over what to do beyond that, differences dictated largely by the depth of those economic ties - and whether they feel at risk themselves from Moscow’s might.
With uncertainty surrounding Thursday’s plane crash, most have little to gain from pointing fingers, especially since the tragedy, which killed 298 people, is unlikely to blunt Russia’s growing clout in the region, experts say.
“No one should expect change in the relations between Russia and any of the central European countries unless clear evidence of Moscow’s involvement is presented,” said Dariusz Kalan, an analyst with the Polish Institute of International Affairs. “Even then, a radical turn would be unlikely since the political, economic and energy contacts are so developed.”
In some ways, divisions in the former Soviet bloc mirror tensions further West: France and Germany have continued to cultivate business ties with Russia, while the United States has taken a stronger line. On the plane crash, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there’s still “no clarity,” showing more caution than the United States, with President Barack Obama linking the crash to “sophisticated equipment ... coming from Russia.”
“We have to be careful not to impose Cold War cliches on the region,” said Jakub Groszkowski, an analyst with the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw. “The governments in Prague or Bratislava are acting in a similar way to cabinets in Paris or Vienna.”
But Russia’s old Soviet bloc neighbors do face uniquely wrenching choices. The region has a history of dependence on Russian oil and natural gas. Economic ties deepened further after the global financial crisis of 2008-09 pushed several countries to forge new economic deals with Russia. When Western markets shrank, export-oriented countries like the Czech Republic turned to Russia, China and elsewhere for new opportunities.
The shift toward Russia is more surprising in the Czech Republic. Only a few years ago it agreed to host a U.S. missile defense site, a plan that sparked Moscow’s anger. Obama has since dropped plans for the Czech site. The left-wing Social Democrats, who opposed the missile defense plan all along, are now in power. In a change from the Vaclav Havel-era focus on human rights, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka says it makes no sense to halt business with Russia because other countries would just take it over. He warns against creating “a new Iron Curtain between the European Union and Russia.”