Media: The Netherlands expects to start of negotiations with Russia regarding MH17 air disaster
The Netherlands expects to start negotiations with Russia regarding its responsibility for the crash of Boeing-777 in Ukraine in July 2014, announced RTL channel on Thursday with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
At this stage, the ministry does not want to disseminate too much information, "so as not to harm the confidentiality of the process." “However, everything is moving in the right direction, and there is hope that official negotiations will begin soon,” said representatives of the department. “We are increasingly confident that we will soon be sitting at the same table with representatives of the Russian side.”
According to the channel, these negotiations could be held in Vienna.
This case is for the so-called state’s responsibility, which is in no way connected with the criminal investigation conducted by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which includes representatives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
The Russian Embassy in the Netherlands has not yet commented regarding this information.
Making the state accountable is a complex legal process. Within its framework, countries usually must first try to find an acceptable solution during negotiations on their own. In the absence of changes or positive results, the issue may be referred to an international court or organization.
The goal of the Netherlands and Australia is to make Russia admit its involvement in the tragedy and, possibly, subsequently compensate the relatives of the victims. The decision to prosecute the Russian Federation was made after the JIT’s publication of the interim results of the criminal investigation in May 2018. The materials presented by the investigators stated that the anti-aircraft missile launcher, which shot down the plane, was brought from Russia and belonged to the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Russian army based near Kursk.
Malaysian Airlines passenger Boeing-777 performing flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17, 2014, in the east of the Donetsk region, killing 298 people, citizens of ten countries.