From RFE/RL's News Desk:
A U.S. naval officer says Russian military vessels and aircraft have been spotted in the Black Sea near an area where NATO plans to hold a military exercise.
Rear Admiral Brad Williamson the said the Russian navy acted in line with international rules.
"They have their plans, we have ours," Williamson said without disclosing further details.
He was speaking on March 8 to the Bulgarian BTA news agency aboard a U.S. cruiser docked in the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna.
The United States is due to take part in the exercise on March 9 alongside NATO partners Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey amid tensions between the West and Russia over the Ukraine conflict.
Censor.NET citing blogger smoliarm reports that materials on the current status of the investigation were transferred to the media by the press service of the Prosecutor's Office. On their basis an editorial was published on NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting - one of the largest news television, radio and web portals in Dutch).
Since the article is in Dutch, the blogger provided only the most basic parts.
He writes that a criminal investigation into the disaster is being conducts by a Joint International Team (JIT) under the leadership of the Prosecutor's Office of Holland. The tasks are:
1. To identify how, by what and from where the MH-17 was shot down;
2. To identify those responsible and take them to court.
All collected evidence points: MH-17 was hit by a Buk missile, launched from a Russian complex, and, most likely, by a Russian crew. This Buk was brought from Russia to Ukraine shortly before the tragedy. Numerous photos and videos have been found and witnesses have been interviewed.
The JIT investigators collected and processed over one million documents, photos and videos.
Regarding the second item - it is necessary not only to identify the suspects and gather evidence, but also provide the court with the facts and evidence sufficient for a conviction. This is what the team is working on now.
Putin says he told officials of Crimea decision in February 2014:
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he told senior security officials of his decision to take Crimea just hours after embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned power.
In a trailer for a documentary to be aired on state television, Putin described an emergency Kremlin meeting he said ended about 7 a.m. on February 23, 2014.
Putin said he ordered the military and security agencies to "to save the Ukrainian president's life."
"As we were parting, I told all my colleagues: We will have to start work to return Crimea to Russia," Putin said in the trailer shown on March 8.
Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 after deploying troops to the region, engineering the takeover of the regional parliament, and staging a referendum denounced by Kyiv and the West as illegitimate.
The Kremlin originally denied that it had sent troops into Crimea, but Putin later said on television that Russian troops had been sent in.