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Russian Government Edits Wikipedia On Flight MH17
An anonymous reader writes A political battle has broken out on Wikipedia over an entry relating to the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, with the Russian government reportedly removing sections which accuse it of providing 'terrorists' with missiles that were used to down the civilian airliner. A Twitter bot which monitors edits made to the online encyclopedia from Russian government IP addresses spotted that changes are being made to a page relating to the crash. All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) changed a Russian language version of a page listing civil aviation accidents to say that "The plane was shot down by Ukrainian soldiers." That edit replaced text – written just an hour earlier – which said MH17 had been shot down "by terrorists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic with Buk system missiles, which the terrorists received from the Russian Federation."
Each party blames it on the others. Surprise surprise.
To be honest it's quite impossible to be certain of the facts now and neither side is helping.
I don't trust any of the parties involved. They're all war mongering liars.
Except one of these sides actually knows the truth, or the closest thing to it, and is a primary source, the other side are just internet idiots trying to push an anti "Red" agenda left over from the Soviet Union and American anti communist propaganda. The Russian government is likely the most knowledge institution in the world when it comes to this incident. Sharing that knowledge with Wikipedia is just transparency, unless we know that they are knowingly disseminating false information. Not that this is unlikely, just that it is a possibility that they are telling the truth (I have absolutely no knowledge of modern Russian politics or this incident, but last I heard we know next to nothing).
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Yes, really? With that definition it'd be impossible for a new military to ever be created, because anyone who joins and fights with one is not joining a standing army therefore cannot be soldiers. That is obviously nonsense, it must be possible for someone to be a soldier in a newly formed army, which is what it looks like is happening here.
Additionally, you claim that the fighters in Donetsk cannot be soldiers because soldiers are trained, and then immediately claim they're receiving training from Russia. So which is it?
You're quite right - it probably was the separatists. This does not change the accuracy of the Wikipedia edit that's being discussed, because unless/until the separatists win, they are still Ukrainians.
Although I'd note that given the amount of bullshit emanating from all sides in this conflict it's hard to really know anything about what's going on. The area of Ukraine that's in revolt is next to the Russian border, which is exactly where you'd expect the Ukrainian military to have had lots of soldiers and equipment stationed. Missiles might have been trucked over the Russian border, or they might simply have been there already. The separatists might be being trained by Russians (this would be unsurprising and not exactly unprecedented - see how the USA supported rebels in Syria), or alternatively they might be operating the equipment without really knowing what they're doing - indeed, having no clue what you're targeting would be rather indicative of not being properly trained, no? Or perhaps they're being trained by people who are ethnically Russian but lived in Ukraine at the time of the rebellion, or one of many other more complex cases that won't neatly fit into the "Putin fired the missiles himself" story the west is busy pushing.
All we can say for sure is that whatever you read about this incident is going to be full-blown propaganda, and should be treated as such.
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
No.
If you target soldiers, you may be a freedom fighter.
If you target police and other government employees you might be a freedom fighter.
If you target civilians, like some guy trying to buy food for his family in the local market, you are a terrorist.
Terrorists are vermin, to be exterminated as soon as possible.
One biased side is fighting edits from an even more biased side.
The first casualty of war is the truth. In this case both sides are trying to pummel truth's dead body into a hamburger.
I don't discount the fact that there's propaganda all around on this. Everyone seems to forget that this entire affair started because of a European/US backed coup overthrew and elected pro-russian government. But... The Russians backed the separatists, armed them and many of the people in command of those troops are in fact ex-Russian military. The missile system that shot it down was a Russian system. Not one they sold to anyone, or one that got stolen, it was an active Russian military missile battery that was driven into Ukraine, shot down the jet and then was driven back. There is first hand footage of the truck leaving the area with a missile missing from the rack. Google the video, it's fairly obvious. Unless the US and Europe have gone full "Fake moon landing video" on us, this is 100% the Russians fault and altering that line on wikipedia was a flat out lie.
I'd rather believe this article by Robert Parry (THE journalist who reported Iran Contra scandal in 80s) than mainstream media propaganda where authors don't even dare to sign them with their own names.
This is far too early to judge as investigation didn't even start. All western media are jumping to conclusion as soon as possible and pointing fingers at Putin. Those screaming and pointing fingers should be investigated first as they're usualy suspects. Every police handbook tells it.