--- title: MH17 Ukraine Crash: Russian Roulette Revisited description: Putin's foot-dragging turning the horrible vile canonical: https://time.com/3009998/mh17-ukraine-crash-russian-roulette-ii/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-20T23:58:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:40:28.887Z article:section: Politics og:title: MH17 Ukraine Crash: Russian Roulette Revisited og:description: Putin's foot-dragging turning the horrible vile og:url: https://time.com/3009998/mh17-ukraine-crash-russian-roulette-ii/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb5d0855520d9b47/69869c72adae440913544390/452430766.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 298 Crew And Passengers Perish On Flight MH17 After Suspected Missile Attack In Ukraine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: MH17 Ukraine Crash: Russian Roulette Revisited twitter:description: Putin's foot-dragging turning the horrible vile twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb5d0855520d9b47/69869c72adae440913544390/452430766.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # MH17 Ukraine Crash: Russian Roulette Revisited > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=555fc0b7-be22-449f-8a08-3cf1945e1296&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Malaysia Airlines Ukraine Crash: Who Shot Down MH17 [Watch (HLS stream): Malaysia Airlines Ukraine Crash: Who Shot Down MH17](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GVJ1uqxb.m3u8) (2:44)  _Published 2014-07-18. With the White House confirming MH17 was shot out of the air, the question becomes who pulled the trigger?_ by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Jul 20, 2014 11:58 PM UTC  Bodies of those aboard MH17 alongside a road in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. Bodies of those aboard MH17 alongside a road in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Jul 20, 2014 11:58 PM UTC General Secretary Yuri Andropov’s Soviet Union played Russian roulette in the early morning hours of Sept. 1, 1983, when an Su-15 interceptor [shot down](http://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/26/world/the-last-hours-of-flight-007-retracing-the-fateful-night-over-sakhalin.html) Korean Air Lines Flight 007, killing all 269 aboard. He died six months later, and his Soviet Union died six years after him, dragged into history, in part, by the horror the shootdown represented, and what it told the rest of the world about the trigger-puller. Three decades later, Russian president Vladimir Putin seems to be playing the same dangerous game, as pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine apparently used an SA-11 missile system to blast Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from the skies, killing all 298 on board an Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur trip. That was bad enough. It got worse over the weekend as [intelligence](http://ukraine.usembassy.gov/statements/asmt-07192014.html) surfaced suggesting that the SA-11 wasn’t one that the separatists had captured from Ukraine’s arsenal last month. Instead, SA-11 launchers, and perhaps their operators, appear to have been “on loan” from Russian military units just across the border. As world outrage at Putin continued to rise Sunday, the Russian leader seemed content to play another round of Russian roulette. But his actions make clear that he added a second bullet to his revolver’s cylinder before spinning it anew. Within hours of the shootdown, U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence sources believe that three SA-11 units were moved from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine across the border onto Russian soil. Meanwhile, some of the dead—including nearly 200 Dutch citizens, but no Russians or Ukrainians—continued to rot in the wheat and sunflower fields. Drunken separatists, according to Secretary of State John Kerry, have been loading other bodies onto trucks. Putin, by all accounts, is taking pains to ensure that any investigation into who shot down the Boeing 777 won’t get to the scene in a major way until the trail has grown cold. KAL 007 contributed to the end of the Soviet Union, highlighting its bloodlust as well as its moral bankruptcy. Its denials and obfuscations—first the Soviets denied shooting it down, then they defended it because they deemed KAL 007 to be a spy plane—generated disbelief in many corners of the globe. President Reagan declared it “an act of barbarism,” and Soviet hammer-and-sickle flags were burned. Andropov & Co. barred search vessels from the area. “Andropov, notwithstanding whatever he actually may have believed about Soviet responsibility, was forced onto the defensive and evidently felt compelled to justify the USSR’s actions at all costs,” the CIA’s official [recounting](https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/a-cold-war-conundrum/source.htm#HEADING1-12) of the episode said. “The US follow-on campaign at the UN and in other channels to embarrass and isolate the USSR in the international community undoubtedly contributed to Moscow’s penchant to see an anti-Soviet plot. In the Soviet view, a campaign of this scope and magnitude that just happened to dovetail with the Reagan administration’s moral critique of the USSR must have been more than simply a chance opportunity seized by Washington in the heat of the moment. President Reagan’s decision to use the KAL 007 shootdown to persuade Congress to support his requests for increased defense spending and the new MX missile pointed in the same direction, in Moscow’s view.”  Visitors view an exhibition dedicated to the former Communist leader and KGB head, Yuri Andropov, in Moscow, on July 6, 2014\. Nostalgic about the might of vanished Soviet empire, Russia marked the 100th anniversary of Andropov's birth with exhibitions and television films glorifying the Soviet leader who was in charge when his nation's military shot down KAL 007 in 1983. KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP / Getty Images But don’t look for a quick change in Putin’s attitude. Frank Carlucci, who served Reagan as defense secretary and national security adviser, [recalled](http://millercenter.org/ridingthetiger/reagan-officials-reflect-on-kal-007) riding in the back seat of a car through Ukraine with Soviet defense minister Dmitri Yazov after the KAL 007 shootdown: --- > “” --- The KAL 007 shootdown, piled atop the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the declaration of martial law in Soviet-puppet Poland, and Reagan’s increased defense spending topped with his “Star Wars” missile-defense program, cleared the way for the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev, the vanguard of a new class of Soviet leader who presided over the end of the Soviet Union. Yet Putin’s hero isn’t Gorbachev, but Andropov. As the head of Russian intelligence, Putin “laid flowers on Andropov’s grave, and dedicated a plaque to his hero inside the Lubyanka, the KGB’s notorious Moscow headquarters,” Russia expert and columnist Anne Applebaum has [written](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/apr/26/vladimirs-tale/?pagination=false). “Later, as president, he ordered another plaque placed on the Moscow building where Andropov had lived and erected a statue to him in a St. Petersburg suburb. But Putin wanted to restore more than Andropov’s name. He also, it seems, wanted to restore the old KGB boss’s way of thinking.” Since Thursday, to the shock of those who haven’t been paying attention before that sad day, he has been doing just that. ## Transcript [00:00] Welcome to The Brief for Friday July 18th I'm Ben [00:02] Goldberger and today we're looking at what happened [00:04] in Malaysian Airlines flight 17. US officials confirmed [00:08] that a surface to air missile brought down the [00:10] commercial passenger jet in Eastern Ukraine yesterday [00:13] as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur killing all [00:16] 298 people on board. Apparantly, have [00:21] been shot down. Shot down, not an accident. Blown out [00:25] of the sky. But what isn't known is who is responsible [00:28] for firing the fatal missile. President Obama filled in [00:31] some more details in public remarks today. Over the [00:34] last several weeks, Russian backed separatists have [00:37] shot down a Ukrainian transport plane. And a [00:39] Ukrainian helicopter, and they claimed the [00:42] responsibility for shooting down a Ukrainian fighter jet, [00:46] moreover, we know that these separatists have [00:48] received a steady flow of support from Russia. Those [00:52] rebels have used Russian made missiles to take down [00:54] Ukrainian military planes as recently as this week. And [00:57] it's possible that separatists mistook the plane for a [01:00] military aircraft. That's a sentiment former Secretary of [01:03] State Hillary Clinton agreed with in an appearance on [01:06] Charlie Rose. It probably had to be Russian insurgents. [01:09] Now, how we determine that will require some [01:12] forensics. But then, if there is evidence pointing [01:16] in that direction. The equipment had to have come [01:19] from Russia. Russian president Vladimir Putin has [01:21] been careful with his words. He said Ukraine bares [01:24] responsibility for creating a climate of political unrest. [01:27] But he did not accuse the country of shooting the plane [01:30] down. Nor has he said whether Russia armed the [01:32] rebels with such a powerful missile. Putin did echo the [01:36] international calls for a cease fire earlier today. That's [01:39] essential for any investigation at the crash site to be of [01:41] value. Right now the area's controlled by the [01:44] separatists and is considered unsecure. Meaning [01:47] plenty of evidence could be tampered with before [01:49] investigators get their hands on it. What's still not clear [01:52] is which country will lead the investigation. Or whether [01:55] the black box flight recorders that could contain critical [01:57] clues have been found. The rebels have said they have [02:00] the devices, but experts are not sure if that's true. [02:04] Meanwhile, friends and families of the victims are [02:06] grieving around the world. The tragedy has hit the [02:08] Dutch especially hard. 189 of the passengers are from [02:12] the Netherlands. They included the renowned AIDS [02:14] researcher Jeop Lange, who was traveling with [02:16] colleagues to the 20th International AIDS Conference. [02:20] For one Australian family, the attack was an especially [02:22] cruel twist of fate. [ UNKNOWN ] lost her brother and [02:26] sister- in- law on the Malaysia Airlines flight that [02:28] disappeared in March. Yesterday, she found out her [02:31] step- daughter was on Flight 17. Thanks for watching [02:34] The Brief. 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