MH17: Putin supplied missile that shot down plane, investigators say
Dutch prosecutors say “there are strong indications" that Putin "decided on supplying” the missile which brought down flight MH17 in 2014.
The plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Buk system, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
Russia has always denied any involvement in the downing of the the Boeing 777 flight and refused to cooperate with the international investigation.
An international team of investigators looking in to the incident said “there are strong indications that the Russian president decided on supplying” the missile to Ukrainian separatists, at a conference at The Hague on Wednesday.
Despite this the team said the investigation will now be suspended, with Prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer saying it "has now reached its limit, all leads have been exhausted".
“Although a lot of new information has been discovered about various people involved, the evidence is at the moment not concrete enough to lead to new prosecutions,” they added.
Russia has always denied any involvement in the downing of MH17 which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
The announcement comes nearly three months after a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian rebel for their roles in shooting down the plane. One Russian was acquitted by the court.
None of the suspects appeared for the trial and it was unclear if the three who were convicted of multiple murders will ever serve their sentences.
The convictions, and the court's finding that the surface-to-air Buk missile that blew the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight out of the sky came from a Russian military base, were seen as a clear indication that Moscow had a role in the tragedy.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the court in November of bowing to pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the news media.
But the November convictions held that Moscow was in overall control in 2014 over the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist area of eastern Ukraine where the missile was launched.
The Buk missile system came from the Russian military's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, based in the city of Kursk.
The Joint Investigation Team is made up of experts from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine. Most of the victims were Dutch.
It had continued to investigate the crew of the Russian Buk missile system that brought down the plane and those who ordered its deployment in Ukraine.
As well as the criminal trial that was held in the Netherlands, the Dutch and Ukrainian governments are suing Russia at the European Court of Human Rights over its alleged role in the downing of MH17.
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