What was so compelling about this article was not so much that justice is finally being served, although its proverbial long arm cannot extend so far as to actualize it by plucking the guilty parties out of their haven in Russia, or that a verdict has been forthcoming after so many intervening years; rather, that a news service of the Soviet Union’s once-upon-a-time henchman would be posting an article, putting the USSR’s successor, Russia, in a negative light.

This can be explained, however, since already by mid-summer, reporting was indicating that bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Russia were on a downward trend as Bulgaria sent 70 Russian ‘diplomats’ packing; and, as of early December was stepping up its support for Ukraine with plans to provide rifles and ammunition. The Bulgarian government’s decision to support Ukraine is more than likely based on the fear – founded or not – that Putin has other east European countries in his sights, especially one as close a former ‘comrade-in-arms’ as Bulgaria was. Also, unlike renegade NATO member Turkiye, Bulgaria is maintaining a locked-armed stance together with other member-states in their opposition to Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.

The Bulgarian report begins here [as per paraphrased translation by LOC]:

A Dutch court has passed the verdict that a Russian missile, fired from eastern Ukraine under the control of Moscow, in 2014 brought down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

The magistrates condemned three of the four defendants, in absentia, to life imprisonment. The chairman of the court, Hendrik Steenhuis, explained that the court’s opinion was that an SA-11 missile, fired from farmland in the vicinity of Pervomaisk, brought down MH17.

Moscow had repeatedly refused to bear responsibility for bringing down MH17 and rejected the decision of the court that found two of its citizens guilty, The Foreign Ministry in Moscow stated its position that the court had been put under unprecedented pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors, and media, that the case had not been impartial, and that the trial could very well be “one of the most scandalous in the history of judicial practice.”

The court’s decision comes more than eight years after the Boeing 777, on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, blew apart over Ukraine on July 17, 2014, with all 298 passengers and crew dying. The reporter notes that “[t]his happened during the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, which began after the unlawful annexation of Crimea by Russia earlier that year” and quotes Steenhuis, who pointed out that ““[b]y the middle of May 2014, Russia had full control over the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic,” the area where the plane crashed.

The court, in pronouncing its verdict, sentenced three of the four defendants – Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, and Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko – to life imprisonment. However, since they are located in Russia, which does not extradite its citizens, the sentence cannot be carried out, while formally, it can be appealed within two weeks. The fourth defendant, Oleg Pulatov, also a Russian, was acquitted.

The Russians were identified as former members of the Russian special services and one of them a military leader of separatists. According to the Dutch prosecutor, they had arranged the delivery of the Russian anti-aircraft missile to Ukraine. From intercepted telephone conversations it became clear that the separatists, who shot it down, thought that they had targeted a Ukrainian fighter jet.

Among those who died were citizens of 10 countries, more than half of whom were Dutch. The judicial process was conducted according to the Dutch legal system, while the investigation also included Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia, and Belgium. Russia refused to cooperate.

Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelensky welcomed the decision of the court, calling it important. “Of critical importance is that those who ordered the attack be judged. Because the feeling of impunity leads to new crimes,” he wrote on Twitter. According to him, “[T]he punishment for all Russian atrocities will be inescapable.” [Tnanslator comment: Zelensky is obviously using the ocassion of this ruling to remind the reader of the ‘atrocities’ that his country is experiencing presently at the hand of Russian president Vladimir Putin and his expectation that the international community will hold the latter accountable for them.]