Explosive new statement just released by the Joint Investigation Team prosecuting the MH17 downing. In short: JIT provides hard evidence that Kremlin directly controlled military activities and weapons supply to Donbass militants in early July 2014.

This means that the military chain of command for criminal liability for the downing now goes all the way up to the Kremlin…and under Dutch law JIT will need to prosecute as far as the chain of command goes.

For the first time JIT publishes a trove of original, raw phone call intercepts, many of them containing voices of top Russian military commanders, Putin's aide Surkov, and FSB proxy Malofeev. Content appears damning.

Call intercepts include a call to the Russia's southern district military chief Serdyukov, who tells a militant commander he is instructed to only allocate weapons that are approved by "General Vladimir Ivanovich from FSB".

The identity of Gen. "Vladimir Ivanovich" from FSB is the key new suspect that JIT needs help identifying.

In one call, Alexander Boroday, then prime minister of "DNR", says he has only exclusive line of command and responsibility: to the Russian Federation. In another, he says he fulfils the orders of "Kontora", Russia's colloquialism for FSB.

In anothercall from July 1 2014, a local militant commander asks a supervisor what the new rules of engagement are. He is told: Shoigu (Russia's Defense Minister) mandated that local militant chiefs are kicked out and replaced by people sent from Moscow.

In a long, encrypted phone call (apparently not too well encrypted), Putin aide Surkov coaches Boroday, and takes requests from him. They both laugh after Boroday explains Donetsk is a "humanitarian disaster" that will need to survive on Russian aid.

You can read the full statement here https://www.politie.nl/themas/flight-mh17/witness-appeal-crash-mh17.html . Check out @bellingcat 's website later for more analysis and details

Another interesting call is between Malofeev and Boroday, also on an encrypted line. In it Malofeev, who part-sponsors "the republic", orders Boroday to make Girkin give a TV interview declaring utter loyalty to supreme commander Putin, and to extol his virtues.

Girkin/Strelkov did make that odd-sounding statement back then. Apparently it was meant to reassure Putin that Girkin can be trusted and left in place.