RFE/RL’s Tom Balmforth asked Moscow residents what they knew from the Russian media about the July 17 crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine. Some respondents blamed the Ukrainian government — and the United States — for the apparent downing of the passenger airplane. Others dismissed Russian television as an unreliable source of information and said antigovernment rebels in eastern Ukraine were responsible for the plane crash.
Why did Russia close its airspace near Donbas one day before flight MH17 was downed?
When on 13 October 2015 the Dutch Safety Board released its report into the crash of flight MH17,…