Bellingcat – Caught Up in Still More MH17 Falsification

Special note from Truth Speaker Graham Phillips: The discredited ‘citizen journalism’ agency Bellingcat has, from the beginning, pushed the line of a ‘Russian BUK’ responsible for downing MH17, on any number of spurious grounds.  The key 'evidence' in this has been the BUK supposedly originating from the Russian - ’53rd Russian Air Defense Brigade’ –

“The Bellingcat MH17 investigation team also believes the same Buk was part of a convoy travelling from the 53^rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade in Kursk to near the Ukrainian border as part of a training exercise between June 22^nd and July 25^th” 

And the Key to the Bellingcat polemic, one ‘Ivan Krasnoproshin’ –

“Images posted to the now-deleted profile of brigade member Ivan Krasnoproshin also show vehicles that are part of the convoy.”

Here are two photos of a the same truck, the first image is from the video in the Krasneyskiy area and the second was uploaded by Ivan Krasnoproshin who serves in the 53rd brigade.”

By Anna Vatavu

A small introduction: there are two types of army service in Russia – conscription and professional contract service. Conscription service takes exactly one year (apart from fleet, where it can be 2 or 3 years) and it is compulsory. As for the contract service, one can sign a contract for at least 3 years. 53rd brigade has soldiers of both types.

I decided to find out, what type of a sergeant Krasnoproshin could have been. From the photos of his (now deleted) VK page we can estimate, that he started his army service in June 2012 (he took the oath on 22/07/2012). So, by 2014 he would have already left the army, if he was a conscript. And if he had a contract, he would not have been able to leave the army until 2015. So, his dismissal in June 2014 looks suspicious indeed.

But how do we know that Ivan was dismissed in June 2014? Mainly because Correctiv tells us this:

“Note of the dismissal – stamped and dismissed: In June, a week before he and his unit went to Ukraine, Ivan Krasnoproshin and some of his colleagues were dismissed from the Russian army. Coincidence? Or intent?”

However, if we look at the photo of the journal that Ivan posted, it is very clear that he was dismissed in 2013.

The first line says: “was dismissed due to the end of service term according to the order №225 on 13(5)/06/13“. Three other soldiers were also dismissed in 2013. One does not have to know Russian to see the numbers clearly. They were all dismissed in 2013, more than one year before the tragedy. So, everything is crystal clear now – Krasnoproshin joined the army as a conscript in June 2012 and in June 2013 he finished his service. This fully corresponds to the Russian laws and regulations. Knowing this, we understand that this part -“This alleged dismissal of a lot of soldiers seems to be happening with one special reason: the Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to be able to claim that there are no Russian soldiers deployed to Eastern Ukraine” is complete bullshit.

The Correctiv team were sure – if they say “In June, a week before he and his unit went to Ukraine, Ivan Krasnoproshin and some of his colleagues were dismissed from the Russian army“, nobody will look at the journal closer. What is more, in the Russian version of the report, Correctiv says that it is impossible to see what is written in the journal after the phrase “was dismissed due to the end of service term according to the order…“, though in fact we can clearly see the numbers. Obviously, they knew that Krasnoproshin and the other soldiers were dismissed in 2013 and had nothing to do with Ukraine and MH17 in particular.

Now we see, how they manipulated only one small fact, but it destroys Correctiv’s/Bcat’s credibility immediately. They claim to be “investigative journalists”, but they hide and manipulate facts to fit their story line. The most disgusting thing for me is their style of writing – they attack you and make you think they are 100% sure in the truthfulness of their words. Just look at this: “The online investigative team Bellingcat was able to identify the 53rd Russian Air Brigade from Kursk as the unit which employs the soldiers who possibly launched the deadly missile at Flight MH17. One guy who really helped to uncover this unit was Sergeant Ivan Krasnoproschin.“