Bellingcat vs. Buk-M1

The British "journalistic expert group" Bellingcat has allegedly identified the number of the Buk missile system that had supposedly shot down the Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines over the Donbass in July 2014. 

Bellingcat experts previously stated that a self-propelled Buk-M1 system was traveling on the militia-controlled territory in the east of Ukraine on July 17, 2014. 

In response, the authorities of the People's Republic of Donetsk said that they did not agree with the conclusions of Bellingcat experts about the presence of Russian anti-aircraft gunners in the Donbass region, including at the time of the crash of the Malaysian Boeing. Deputy Minister of Defense of the unrecognized republic, Eduard Basurin, stated that "there were no Russian soldiers, including those from the 53rd air defense brigade. "If we had had them either then or now, the line of contact would have been much further," the official said. 

Earlier, the media have exposed blogger Eliot Higgins, who "published the conclusions about Flight MH17 crash before the completion of the official investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy.

Higgins is also famous for his analysis of weapons used in the Syrian conflict. It turned out, however, that the author of the notorious materials had neither military experience nor higher education. Higgins admitted that his knowledge of weapons was based on action films with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.

For the Bellingcat project, Higgins used YouTube and Google Planet mapping service. On the basis of his analysis, the blogger claimed that Russia had falsified satellite photos to shift the blame for the crash of the Boeing on the Ukrainian army. 

Western media cast doubts on the credibility of the Bellingcat report about the crash of the Malaysian Boeing as well. In June last year, German publication Spiegel interviewed an expert in the analysis of forensic photography, Jens Kriese. The interview was made after Bellingcat experts claimed that the Russian Ministry of Defense was supposedly manipulating the photos of the downed aircraft.

According to Kriese, Bellingcat's method of investigation does not hold water in terms of expertise. "Basically, it relies on the so-called ELA-analysis. This is an unscientific and subjective technique. Accordingly, there is no scientific article dedicated to this method," said the expert.

Chief editor of Spiegel Online, Florian Harms, had to bring official apologies to readers for giving misleading anti-Russian headlines on the basis of Bellingcat's reports. 

On May 3rd, the BBC presented another documentary about the crash of Boeing-777 of Malaysian Airlines over the Donbass. Among other things, the documentary says that the Boeing could be shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet. German journalist Billy Six interviewed about a hundred people. Seven of them claimed to have seen a Ukrainian fighter that may have shot down the Malaysian plane.

The documentary also includes the official version, including the "research" conducted by the Bellingcat group.

It appears to be Higgins's objective to prove the implication of Donbass militia into the crash of the passenger aircraft. Obviously, the Bellingcat report, albeit far-fetched, looks exactly as the West wants it to be. 

Noteworthy, in late July 2014, about a week after the tragedy, the Russian service of the BBC aired  a report by correspondent Olga Ivshyna about the Boeing 777 disaster in Ukraine. 

In the report, the journalist said that a BBC crew talked to local residents, asking them about what they saw or heard on the day of the plane crash. Some of the eyewitnesses said that they had seen a military aircraft that could down the passenger airliner. 

However, a few hours later the report was removed from the website under the pretext of violating "corporate standards." After a wave of indignation, the heavily edited version of the report appeared on the website again. 

Interestingly, ex-CIA officer Ray McGovern stand that Bellingcat is sponsored by the Atlantic Council and other Western sources, in particular the United States Agency for International Development.

Below is a telling list of investigative reports that the Bellingcat group made in the past. The list is quite indicative:

• The Avalanche that Went from Russia to Ukraine
• Russian Official Account of Attack on Ukraine Border Guards
• Who's Lying? An In-depth Analysis of the Luhansk Buk Video
• Confirmed: Active Russian Spetsnaz Serviceman Photographed in LuhanskRamadi Haze
• Three Graves: Russian Investigation Team Uncovers Spetsnaz Brigade in Ukraine
• Islamic State Captures Tadmur (Palmyra) in New Sudden Streak of Offensives

As you can see, Bellingcat is a specifically oriented group that "unmasks" only opponents of the West.