An overwhelming majority of metropolitan Russians blame the Ukrainian military for MH17, a Levada poll shows. From our newsroom:
A public-opinion poll in Russia has found that the majority of residents in Russia's big cities believe that the Malaysian passenger plane that crashed in eastern Ukraine killing 298 people on July 17 had been shot down by the Ukrainian army.
The poll held in Russia's six largest cities was released on July 30 by the Levada Center.
Of 1,501 respondents, 46 percent said the aircraft had been brought down by a Ukrainian missile shot from the ground, while 36 percent said the plane was shot down by a Ukrainian military plane.
Only 3 percent of respondents said the airliner had been brought down by pro-Russian separatists.
The West says the pro-Russian separatists probably shot the plane down by mistake and accuses Russia of arming them. Moscow denies this.
Some of the reaction from various Russian quarters to the latest Western sanctions, via our newsroom:
Russia's envoy to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said on July 30 that the new sanctions would lead nowhere and fail to help solve the Ukraine crisis.
Russia's Central Bank said it would take "adequate measures" to support targeted institutions which include the country's second-largest bank, VTB.
VTB called the sanctions "politically motivated" and "unjust" said it was ready to borrow on financial markets outside the EU and the United States.
Interfax quotes an aide to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as suggesting the trilateral meeting (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE) that Belarus has offered to host could happen this week.
"The problem was where to meet, and so an idea arose that might help this matter materialize - to hold such a meeting in Minsk.
Yesterday the president of Ukraine had a telephone conversation with the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and the result of that conversation was the position of Belarus that it and Lukashenko personally could help organize such a meeting," Valery Chaly, deputy chief of the presidential staff, told a briefing.
"I see this as a very partner-like move on the part of the Belarusian leadership," Chaly said, adding that he thought such a meeting might take place within days.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, has welcomed the overture from Minsk.