糖心网页版

If President Vladimir Putin really thought that the destruction of Flight MH17 with 298 people on board would soon blow over, the White House statement from last Friday must have disillusioned him鈥攁ssuming his subordinates actually informed him about it. The White House statement directly noted: 鈥渨e have concluded that Vladimir Putin and the Russians are culpable to this tragedy.鈥� Russian media did its best to spin these words, whereas the official sources mentioned only the West鈥檚 lack of irrefutable evidence (, , July 26). It is possible to interpret 鈥渢he Russians鈥� in this context in the narrow sense鈥攁s the separatist rebels鈥攂ut there is no doubt about the meaning of the point: 鈥溾�� it all goes back ultimately to Vladimir Putin鈥� (, July 26). There were at least 15 telephone conversations between Putin and Western leaders in the immediate aftermath of the air tragedy鈥攖hough none since last Wednesday (July 23).

Full text in the , July 28.