Уважаемые коллеги,

на русском языке опубликована книга голландского ученого,

который на документальном материале показывает,

почему западные СМИ и правительства пытались использовать

катастрофу Боинга MH17 в целях обвинить ДНР и Россию.

Украина стала площадкой для отработки 

технологий беспощадной гибридной войны против России. 

Kees Van der Pijl, University of Sussex

This book is about the manipulation of public opinion by governments, and more specifically, about how the emotions evoked by a drama such as the downing of...

Preface to the Russian edition

This book is about the manipulation of public opinion by governments, and morespecifically, about how the emotions evoked by a drama such as the downing of a passenger plane in the war zone of eastern Ukraine in July 2!", are being used forgeopolitical and economic gain# $y first concern is how %estern governments, andmore particularly my own government in the &etherlands, continue to e'ploit thedisaster, in line with &(T) policy of economic and ideological warfare againstRussia#(ll governments will resort to the manipulation of public opinion, but in this caseand in many others, the %est has demonstrated it is the undisputed master ofceremonies# )ne would have hoped, perhaps na*vely, that other governmentsincluding the Russian government, might have used their knowledge of events to cut!

through the &(T) propaganda and enlighten world public opinion on this and othermatters# +owever, we have to accept that that is not the business of governments#They of necessity have other priorities and in fact do better to leave the field ofhistorical enuiry to academics and -ournalists#%hat happens when governments and parliaments do involve themselves inestablishing what is historical truth and what is not, can be seen when they resort to prescribing it in law# .or instance, it is forbidden in several countries to deny thereality the great systematic massacres of modern times, whether or not they must belabelled /genocides0, and so on# (s a result, even scholars who would not dream ofdenying the basic facts, would still feel constrained by the official codification ofhistorical truth in advance, which establishes taboos instead of a basis in fact#1n the case of the utch3led investigation of the $+!4 disaster, this is illustrated by the law of 2! governing the work of the utch 5afety 6oard 7568, the bodyentrusted with technical investigation of the catastrophe# That law decrees in article 94that

not all information the DSB collects will be made public,

or put otherwise, its publications will not necessarily contain all it knows# 5pecifically, information thatwill harm the relations of the &etherlands with other states and internationalorganisations, or harmful to economic or financial interests,

will not be reported 

 7articles 94#2 a and b, respectively8# 1n combination with the veto granted to thegovernment in :iev in the criminal investigation by the Join 1nvestigation Team 7J1T8,which bases its work on the deeply flawed 56 investigation, this greatly reduces thevalidity of any outcome#5ince the book was first published, the limitations imposed by the legal restrictionsimposed on the utch 5afety 6oard and by the :iev veto, have come into full view#This holds especially for the second J1T press conference of $ay 2!; that 1 refer toin the prefaces to the <nglish and =erman editions# Two members of the J1T, $alaysiaand 6elgium, did not -oin the &etherlands and (ustralia in formally accusing Russiaof responsibility for the disaster on the basis of the evidence presented 7Ukrainewould have -oined, but was left out so as not to undermine the credibility of theaccusation8# This dissent has effectively grounded the criminal investigation, butobviously not the political one#1n this respect, the death of >aptain ?ladislav ?oloshin on !; $arch 2!; would be a ma-or trail to follow# ?oloshin had been identified by a mechanic from his airforce base as the 5u329 pilot returning from a mission in distress about the /wrong2

 plane0 at which he fired his missiles, although ?oloshin emphatically denied that hehad even flown that day# %hat 1 say in the book on the limitations of an 5u329 wouldnot apply to an air3to3air missile hit, certainly not if it would have come from anupgraded 5u329:$, /5corpion0, produced in =eorgia, in partnership with the 1sraelicompany, <lbit# 1t can be armed with Python air3to3air missiles, which, like the 5ovietR324 or R34@ missiles, would have left the pin and shrapnel damage as found on thecockpit of the $alaysian 6oeing#)n all aspects of ?oloshin0s death 7as on the uestion whether he flew that day8,there is disputeA some say he was depressed, others that he was notB his wife said he became only depressed after he received a mysterious phone call the day before hisdeath# The pistol used in the alleged suicide had its serial number removed, etcetera#

Another trail worth to be pursued further concerns the question why the cockpitbroke off after it was hit. As I show in the book, the DSB lied about the presence of aheavy cargo of lithiumion batteries on board of !"#$, most of it stowed right behindthe cockpit. According to e%perts, a much lighter cargo of such batteries on board ofthe other lost !alaysia airliner, !"&$', already made that plane (a flying bomb). Inan Internet debate on !"#$, "erman *o+ema, one of the most knowledgeablee%perts on this topic in the etherlands -he also helped me with the present book,commented on the possibility that the battery cargo might have

e'ploded after thecockpit was hit, that /5omeone should ask logistics CatD 5chiphol, CwhichD the 56should have been doing E 1t was known from early 2!@ on that these kind of batteries could pose a severe risk to aeroplanes when something unintended happens#0These are -ust two avenues of further research that 1 hope will be pursued to helpclear up the tragedy of $+!4# They illustrate that on the basis of what 1 write in the book, meaningful hypotheses can be formulated# )thers with the necessary e'pertiseand greater access to the reuired information can then take this forward# +opefullyan end to the civil war in Ukraine, besides ending the bloodshed and destruction,would also mean an end to the obfuscation of evidence#1n the meantime 1 can only e'press my gratitude to those who helped getting this book into a Russian editionA ?ladimir &aydenov, political attachF at the Russian<mbassy in The +ague, &atalia ?orontsova, also in the &etherlandsB in $oscow,Professors Guriy =romyko and <vgeny <remchenkoB the translator, )lga 5emina, andlast but not least, $r# .edor (ndreev and the production team at :uchkovo pole#@