BA Boeing Co

By Paul Sonne 

MOSCOW--Russian state arms maker Almaz-Antey, producer of the Buk missile system, welcomed hundreds of journalists to an industrial park in outer Moscow on Tuesday, hours before Dutch authorities released their final report on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

The goal: To cast doubt on the Dutch probe's results before they were even released. Slides, graphs and simulations were on offer. Pieces of shrapnel decorated the stage. The arms maker even cued up footage of an experiment conducted earlier this month, in which its specialists blasted the cockpit of an Ilyushin 86 aircraft with a Buk missile in a Russian field.

"The results of the experiment completely refuted the conclusions of the Dutch commission on the type of missile and the place of its launch," said Almaz-Antey Chief Executive Jan Novikov, hours before the Dutch commission had released those conclusions.

In short, attendees slipped through the Russian looking glass, where information about MH17 consistently has opposed what most of the rest of the world has come to believe about the downing of the aircraft. Almaz-Antey's presentation was then beamed across the country as the lead story in state newscasts, bringing the alternative reality to Russian homes.

Since the July 2014 disaster, Russia's government, state media and main investigative body have advanced various arguments to undercut the primary theory confirmed Tuesday by the Dutch report, namely that a missile fired from a Buk system on rebel-held territory downed the Boeing 777.

The arguments Russia and its media have advanced have varied over time. In the hours after the crash, Russia's First Channel suggested the crash resulted from a failed attempt by Ukraine's military to strike Russian President Vladimir Putin's plane. Days later, Russia's Defense Ministry suggested a Ukrainian jet fighter shot down the civilian aircraft. By the end of the year, Russia's Investigative Committee reiterated that theory, saying it had interviewed an unnamed Ukrainian defector as verification. In its presentation Tuesday, Almaz-Antey suggested a Ukrainian-held Buk did the damage.

Despite the variance, all those theories have shared a common thread: Russia's innocence. The result is that most Russians, some 15 months after the crash, believe an alternative version of events. In an August report, Russia's Levada Center pollster found that with the exception of 4% to 5% of the population, public opinion on Ukraine was unanimous in rejecting any Russian responsibility for the conflict, including the downing of MH17. The majority of the country gets its news from state television.

On Tuesday, the Dutch Safety Board concluded that a 9N314M warhead carried on a 9M38-series missile launched from a Buk struck MH17. The board's chairman didn't give an exact location of the launch, saying it was outside the scope of the investigation. But he showed an approximate launch area that encompassed rebel land near the city of Snizhne. Dutch officials ruled out the possibility of an air-to-air attack, based on radar at the time and marks on the wreckage.

Almaz-Antey argued that its simulation proved that the attack came from a different direction, closer to Ukrainian-held territory. It also said an older type of missile, which Russia's military stopped operating but Ukraine's armed forces continued to use, likely downed the Malaysian aircraft.

Defense experts questioned the Russian firm's findings.

"The report released today by Russian missile maker Almaz-Antey should be discounted as disinformation and propaganda aimed at drawing attention away from the Dutch report," Nick de Larrinaga, Europe Editor for IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, said in a statement. He cited evidence showing the older type of missile Almaz-Antey mentioned in fact "remained in Russian service and in Russian military stockpiles at the time of the shootdown."

At the news conference itself a Dutch journalist asked Almaz-Antey whether its investigations into the Buk were akin to a "butcher testing the quality of his own meat." Mr. Novikov said his company remained open to cooperating with international probes on the matter.

Regardless of its veracity, the Almaz-Antey presentation served as an antidote to the Dutch announcement for Russian state television all day on Tuesday, sowing doubt among Russian viewers. The 6 p.m. evening news on Russia's state First Channel--among the most popular in the country--led with the Russian firm's news conference instead of the Dutch Safety Board's long-awaited results.

After a nearly six-minute segment on Almaz-Antey, the First Channel announcer sped through the Dutch Safety Board's findings in about a minute before emphasizing the Russian Foreign Ministry's objections and the report's rebuke of Ukraine.

"The International Commission came to the conclusion that the airspace over south east Ukraine should have been closed before the tragedy, but the aviation authorities failed to adequately assess the risk for civilian airlines," the First Channel news reader said. "As a result, dozens of airliners that flew through over the conflict zone weren't informed about the danger."

Write to Paul Sonne at paul.sonne@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 13, 2015 16:24 ET (20:24 GMT)

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