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EU and US Outrage Against Russia Over MH17 Crash Filled With Myopia - Journalist

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The crash of a Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine resulted in an outrage by the West aimed at Russia that can only be described as myopic and hypocritical, Martin Sieff, an Irish-American journalist and author said in an interview with RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - The crash of a Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine resulted in an outrage by the West aimed at Russia that can only be described as myopic and hypocritical, Martin Sieff, an Irish-American journalist and author said in an interview with RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

“The outrage of Europe and the United States against Russia over the crisis is filled with selective amnesia, myopia and crass hypocrisy too: The eastern Ukrainian rebel groups craved the anti-aircraft missiles to defend their civilian populations from airstrikes that, combined with ground artillery and multiple rocket mortar bombardments, have already killed nearly a thousand Ukrainian civilians – three to four times the death toll of MH17,” Sieff said.

He believes that the crash is most likely “the result of a catastrophic bungle … such things happen in wars, civil or otherwise.”

Sieff added that “whatever further revelations emerge about it, the disaster looks certain to further strain U.S.-Russia ties and trigger yet another round of increasing tensions between the thermonuclear superpowers.”

He also pointed out that “Malaysia Airlines was certainly at fault in continuing to route their flights through what was widely recognized to be an increasingly dangerous war zone. Many far more responsible Asian airlines had months ago taken the decision to steer clear of risking sending their passenger flights through the region.”

Speaking about the sanctions Sieff noted that “this is extremely reckless and counter-productive: It will do nothing to ease tensions in Ukraine. It will only provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin to take a stronger, nationalist stance against the West.”

He said that what’s needed is “coordinated private diplomacy between the United States and Russia to work out a practical road map to end the violence and allow real self-government and increased federalization for eastern Ukraine. Henry Kissinger among others has strongly advocated such a course of action.”

“However, the prospects for this to work unfortunately remain tenuous in the extreme,” he added.

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