The vast majority of Russians believe the Ukrainian military shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a new poll has shown, underlining how differently the tragedy has been presented in Russia than in the west.
Western leaders have said pro-Russian rebels most likely fired a surface-to-air missile at MH17, which went down over eastern Ukraine on 17 July, killing all 298 people on board. Last week, Russia's defence ministry presented satellite and radar footage that it claimed showed Ukrainian surface-to-air missiles and warplanes operating near the Malaysian airliner when it went down. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has called for a full investigation into the crash, but he has also said the "government over whose territory it occurred is responsible for this terrible tragedy".
According to a poll conducted by the Levada Centre, an independent Russian research organisation, 82% of Russians surveyed blame Ukrainian forces for downing the plane. Of 1,501 respondents surveyed in Russia's six biggest cities, 46% said they believed a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile was responsible, and 36% said a Ukrainian warplane had shot it down. Only 3% believe the rebels in eastern Ukraine were responsible for shooting down the plane. Sixteen per cent said they didn't know. Levada said respondents were allowed to give multiple reasons, but the majority picked one answer.
The poll results came after EU governments agreed on economic sanctions against Russia's finance, oil and defence industries, over what they said was Moscow's failure to stop arming rebels in eastern Ukraine and cooperate fully in the MH17 investigation. They amount to the most extensive EU sanctions imposed on Russia since the cold war. The US quickly followed with similar sanctions of its own.
The Levada Centre sociologist Denis Volkok said state-controlled TV news was largely responsible for forming public opinion on MH17, noting that 94% of Russians relied on this source for information on events in Crimea and Ukraine.
"A different reality has been created on television, where there are different theories, different history, different images, which equate the Ukrainian forces with fascists," Volkov said.
Russian state-controlled television has presented a variety of explanations for the tragedy, while broadcasting rebel leaders' denials. Unfounded theories, including one which argues that Ukrainian forces had been trying to shoot down Putin's plane, have received wide coverage. Television and print media have also been revisiting the story of Siberia Airlines flight 1812, which the Ukrainian military admitted it shot down over the Black Sea in 2001.
