Russian govt edits MH17 Wikipedia entry, blames Ukraine
The Russian government has been caught editing a Wikipedia entry about Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, pinning the blame on the Ukrainian military.
The change was picked up by Twitter bot RuGovEdits, which sends out alerts as it looks for changes on Wikipedia entries made by Russian government IP addresses.
According to the Daily Telegraph, a user from the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company wrote that MH17 "was shot down by Ukraine soldiers" on the Russian version of a page listing civil aviation accidents.
Just an hour earlier, the page said that the doomed flight had been "shot down by terrorists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic with Buk system missiles, which the terrorists obtained from the Russia Federation".
Pointing fingers
The incident comes as Russia and Ukraine continue to point fingers at one another over the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines jet.
Flight MH17 was flying at a height of 10km from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by a missile on Thursday, crashing near the Ukraine-Russia border.
None of the 298 on board survived.
Kiev has accused Russia of helping rebels to destroy evidence at the crash site ahead of an investigation into the incident.
Concern has also been raised about the bodies of the victims, which are decomposing in the summer heat.
Sources: Daily Telegraph, NY Daily News, AFP
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