Truly surprised that the German Focus Online picked up this Russian propaganda and passed it on without checking it.
Now being torn apart by open source analysts on the blogger side who have been dealing with MH17 evidence from the very beginning and have identified the Russian BUK involved in the shot down.
Great summary of Dutch launch site photo story and the Russian counter narrative of the SU-25 from @gkates
http://www.rferl.org/content/new-com.../26760591.html …
Four days after the July crash, the Russian Defense Ministry floated the theory that an SU-25 had shot down the Malaysian jet, but aviation experts quickly cast doubt on the claim.
At the time, David Gleave, an aviation and safety researcher at Loughborough University, told RFE/RL that when loaded with missiles the SU-25 could not reach an altitude much higher than 5 kilometers -- MH17 was flying at around 10 kilometers when it was hit.
According to the Russian-backed witness, the plane was able to overcome this hindrance by turning its nose up and firing into the air.
Pavel Felgenhauer, a journalist and military analyst, told the independent Snob.ru that the new Russian claims are "complete garbage."
Felgenhauer said the SU-25 would not have had the capacity to catch up to a Boeing 777 at cruising speed. And because the R-60 is a heat-seeking missile, he said it does not make sense that the nose of MH17 appears to have been hit rather than the engine.
Ukraine's Security Service said the alleged Ukrainian pilot did not fly on the date of the MH17 crash and that his plane had been taken out of commission for repairs on July 16.
But in a statement, Russia's Investigative Committee said "the way he behaved and from his stated facts, the investigators had no doubts about the sincerity of the information" provided by the alleged witness.
The law-enforcement authority, which has had a combative relationship with Kyiv since battles between government forces and pro-Russian separatists broke out in eastern Ukraine last April, also said its source had passed a polygraph test.
Higgins, said the new Russian story may be meant to "confuse the situation."
"You just have to look at how quickly that story and other stories related to it were spread in the wake of [the Dutch report]."