US Using MH17 Inquiry To Spread Anti-Russian Propaganda: Russian Foreign Ministry

Russia accused the United States of using the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 inquiry for anti-Russian propaganda. According to the Russian foreign ministry, U.S. authorities claimed to know who was responsible for the crash as soon as the plane crashed last year.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the U.S. said on the second day of the crash that it was aware of who was behind the dowing of the plane. She also wondered why no evidence was presented if the U.S. had key details related to the crash.

"On the eve of the tragedy’s anniversary, US ambassador to Russia John Tefft publicly repeated that it was known,” Russia's Tass news agency quoted Zakharova as saying. "Such special-order propaganda is being conducted against Russia irrespective of what actually happened there."

Zakharova claimed that Russia was the only country against an international tribunal for the prosecution of the suspects for the MH17 crash. She said that Russia had managed to prevent a "catastrophic politicization of the tragedy at the UN Security Council.”

According to the spokeswoman, the U.S. government wanted to establish “anti-Russian perception of the world.” However, Russia does not consider the U.S. and its people as enemies, Zakharova said.

An audio clip, claiming a CIA involvement in the crash, was recently released, with media reports calling it “the Dumbest Pro-Russia Hoax on the Internet" as it had several “loopholes."

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Western leaders believe that pro-Russian separatists had shot the aircraft down. However, Russia has vigorously denied any involvement in the crash.