--- title: Ron Paul Hints U.S. Actually Responsible for Malaysia Airlines Crash description: He raises the possibility that the U.S. may be using the crash to start a war against Putin. canonical: https://time.com/3012968/malaysia-arilines-ukraine-crash-ron-paul/ author: Jay Newton-Small article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-21T17:33:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:03.521Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ron Paul Hints U.S. Actually Responsible for Malaysia Airlines Crash og:description: He raises the possibility that the U.S. may be using the crash to start a war against Putin. og:url: https://time.com/3012968/malaysia-arilines-ukraine-crash-ron-paul/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc720a2b58b53b703/69869c86cd68482453095bee/ap617988751073.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1935 og:image:height: 1088 og:image:alt: Ron Paul og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ron Paul Hints U.S. Actually Responsible for Malaysia Airlines Crash twitter:description: He raises the possibility that the U.S. may be using the crash to start a war against Putin. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc720a2b58b53b703/69869c86cd68482453095bee/ap617988751073.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ron Paul Says U.S. May Share Responsibility for Malaysia Airlines Plane Crash > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## 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 [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Jul 21, 2014 5:33 PM UTC  Former U.S. Rep. and presidential candidate Ron Paul waves to supporters before speaking at a campaign rally for U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel, Saturday, June 14, 2014, at Gander Mountain in Hattiesburg, Miss. Former U.S. Rep. and presidential candidate Ron Paul waves to supporters before speaking at a campaign rally for U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel, Saturday, June 14, 2014, at Gander Mountain in Hattiesburg, Miss.Kelly Price—AP/The Hattiesburg American  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Jul 21, 2014 5:33 PM UTC Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul claimed Sunday that the U.S. and European Union may share responsibility for the downing of a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine last week. “While western media outlets rush to repeat government propaganda on the event, there are a few things they will not report,” Paul, a former Republican congressman from Texas, wrote [on his website](http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/july/20/what-the-media-won’t-report-about-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17.aspx). “They will not report that the crisis in Ukraine started late last year, when the EU and U.S. overthrew the elected Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Without U.S.-sponsored ‘regime change,’ it is unlikely that hundreds would have been killed in the unrest that followed. Nor would the Malaysian Airlines crash have happened.” Paul is the father of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who is ahead in polls of likely candidates running for the GOP nomination for president in 2016\. The younger Paul has come under attack in recent weeks from Republicans such as former Vice President Dick Cheney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential rival, for being too isolationist on his foreign policy. Ron Paul, who ran for president in 2008 and 2012, and his son Rand both hail from the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, which advocates less intervention abroad, though Rand Paul has in recent months tried to distance his himself from his father. Rand Paul’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his father’s editorial. In the post Sunday, Ron Paul goes on to write that Ukraine separatists would have everything to lose if they shot down the plane, and nothing to gain, suggesting Ukrainian culpability. “They will not report that the Ukrainian government has much to gain by pinning the attack on Russia, and that the Ukrainian prime minister has already expressed his pleasure that Russia is being blamed for the attack,” Paul said. “They will not report that the missile that apparently shot down the plane was from a sophisticated surface-to-air missile system that requires a good deal of training that the separatists do not have.” President Obama suggested Friday that blame for the crash lay with Russian-backed separatists, and Ukraine has released audio-recordings allegedly documenting conversations about the missile strike among separatists. “Evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile that was launched from an area that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine,” he said. Ron Paul compared the incident to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people last summer. “Assad was also gaining the upper hand in his struggle with U.S.-backed rebels and the U.S. claimed that the attack came from Syrian government positions,” Paul said. “Then, US claims led us to the brink of another war in the Middle East.” At the end of the post, Ron Paul says it is entirely possible that Russia is responsible for the crash, just as the Obama administration has suggested. “Of course it is entirely possible that the Obama administration and the US media has it right this time, and Russia or the separatists in eastern Ukraine either purposely or inadvertently shot down this aircraft,” he writes. “The real point is, it’s very difficult to get accurate information so everybody engages in propaganda.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3012968/malaysia-arilines-ukraine-crash-ron-paul/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3012968/malaysia-arilines-ukraine-crash-ron-paul/"},"headline":"Ron Paul Says U.S. May Share Responsibility for Malaysia Airlines Plane Crash","datePublished":"2014-07-21T17:33:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:01:03.521Z","description":"He raises the possibility that the U.S. may be using the crash to start a war against Putin.","url":"https://time.com/3012968/malaysia-arilines-ukraine-crash-ron-paul/","keywords":["Republican Party","putin","Ukraine","russia","dove","Rand Paul","rick perry","Malaysia Airlines","dick cheney","ron paul","separatists","#MH17"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc720a2b58b53b703/69869c86cd68482453095bee/ap617988751073.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jay Newton-Small","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc720a2b58b53b703/69869c86cd68482453095bee/ap617988751073.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ron Paul","caption":"Ron Paul","creditText":"Kelly Price—AP/The Hattiesburg American","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republican-party/","name":"Republican Party"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3012968/malaysia-arilines-ukraine-crash-ron-paul/","name":"Ron Paul Says U.S. May Share Responsibility for Malaysia Airlines Plane Crash"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Malaysia Airlines Ukraine Crash: Who Shot Down MH17","description":"With the White House confirming MH17 was shot out of the air, the question becomes who pulled the trigger?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GVJ1uqxb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-18T17:46:26.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GVJ1uqxb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3012968/malaysia-arilines-ukraine-crash-ron-paul/","duration":"PT2M44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3012968/malaysia-arilines-ukraine-crash-ron-paul/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```