KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Moscow has denied the allegations made by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that Russian servicemen were involved in the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 that was shot down over Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

In a press statement today, the Russian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said that the Russian Federation is the target of “completely unfounded accusations” with intention to discredit the nation in the eyes of the international community.

“As was the case at its previous news conferences, the JIT did not produce a single shred of concrete evidence to back up its groundless statements. The JIT continues to put forward not entirely reasonable arguments, some of which are based on dubious information sources.

“Meanwhile, the data submitted to the investigation by Russia continues to be wilfully ignored. Moreover, the JIT representatives accuse Russia of withholding full cooperation. We categorically deny such accusations.

“From the very first day of the tragedy, Russia has been vitally interested in finding the truth and willing to help the investigation in every respect. Russia actively cooperated with the Netherlands and presented all the information it had on the MH17 crash,” said the statement.

It pointed out the Russian authorities had also made the unprecedented move of declassifying Russian military equipment and conducting a meticulous experiment in collaboration with Almaz-Antei, to providing primary radar data and documents showing that the missile that downed the Malaysian Boeing belonged to Ukraine, as well as precision expert analysis proving that the video clips supporting the JIT’s conclusions were fabricated.

Earlier, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed that the recent findings on the culprit behind the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was a “politically-motivated” conclusion to solely blame Russia.

In a press conference, Dr Mahathir also demanded proof that it was indeed Russia which was behind the shooting, adding that the incident was made into a political issue “from the very beginning”.

“We are very unhappy because from the very beginning, it became a political issue on how to accuse Russia of the wrongdoing. Even before they examine, they already said Russia.

“Now they say they have proof. So it is very difficult for us to accept that,” he told reporters.