Putin TV Spins Every Crash Cause Except the One West Sees
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Russian state television has reeled off almost every possible reason why a Malaysian Air passenger jet exploded over rebel territory in eastern Ukraine except for the one western military experts say is the most likely: a Russian-made missile fired by pro-Russian insurgents.
Within hours of the crash, Rossiya 1 speculated that Ukrainian fighter pilots shot down the plane after mistaking its red-white-and-blue livery for Vladimir Putin’s presidential jet returning from Brazil. The channel failed to mention that Putin stopped flying over Ukrainian airspace after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March.