I see that. Disturbing.
From the perspective of a calculating, crafty ring of wealthy bastards, this doesn't look like a smart move, killing a whole bunch of people like that. It's less suspicious to kill HIV researchers and activists off one by one, and shouldn't be difficult to do since many of them work at one time or another out in the field, in the boonies, areas with poor infrastructure and therefore poor investigatory powers ...
But when I take reports like this into account, it looks to me more like this incident was fanatical cultural-ideological bullshit, indistinguishable from religion.
...
In an ironic twist of fate, Ukraine and neighboring Russia, are home to the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world, fueled by the Russian government's irresponsible policies.
"We've made a lot of progress around the world, but Russia is a basket case when it comes to HIV," leading AIDS activist Gregg Gonsalves told Business Insider. "AIDS rates are going down in many places in Africa and other places. In Russia they continue to skyrocket."
Much of the epidemic in Eastern Europe is fueled by shared dirty needles used to inject drugs. Since the 1980s, needle exchanges and opiate substitution therapies, like methadone or buprenorphine, "have saved the lives of millions of injecting drug users worldwide in the past 30 years," Michel Kazatchkine, UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, recently wrote in BMJ.
But in 1997, both treatments were outlawed in Russia.
"This is old Soviet thinking about drug use and infectious disease that didn't go away with the fall of the Berlin Wall and Perestroika. Basically they are still operating in these Cold War approaches to public health. It's incredibly sad," said Gonsalves. "There are lots of people on the ground there who are trying to do good things, lots of NGOs and people working despite the harassment by the government, but the state response is just abysmal."
Unlike Russia, Ukraine has allowed opiate substitution therapy since 2006. But when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine several months ago, opiate substitution therapy was outlawed in the region, and no longer accessible to those who need it. "Politics has won out over science — and doctors, scientists, and humanitarians are right to feel abhorrence that a new human tragedy has been imposed on Crimea," wrote Kazatchkine.
Without access to these prevention methods, rates of HIV/AIDS are expected to continue to rise. The sad irony is: These researchers lost their lives in the place that needs them the most.
The "official version" of the story also seems plausible to me given the well-known and now stereotypical incompetence of that region's tech and training, and the region's almost never-ending conflicts.
The Russians and Ukrainians are pointing fingers at each other.
The investigations aren't done though, looks like maybe Oct of this year for the first one
https://en.wikipedia...17#cite_note-30
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Immediately after the crash, a post appeared on the VKontakte social media profile attributed to Russian Colonel Igor Girkin, leader of the Donbass separatists, claiming responsibility for shooting down an AN-26,[13][14][15] but after it became clear that a civilian aircraft had been shot down, the separatists denied any involvement, and the post was taken down. Russia has said that Ukraine "bears full, total responsibility" for the crash because it happened in Ukrainian airspace.[16] The Ukrainian government states the missile was launched by "Russian professionals and coordinated from Russia".[17][18] In June 2015, Buk manufacturer, the Russian concern Almaz-Antey announced that MH17 had been downed by a 9М38М1 Buk-M1 missile.[19]
Malaysia said intelligence reports on the downing of MH17 were "pretty conclusive", but more investigation was necessary to be certain that a surface-to-air missile brought down the plane, after which they would look at the criminal side.[20][21][22] The German Federal Intelligence Service reportedly concluded that the plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists using a captured Ukrainian Buk system.
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Preliminary evidence from the ongoing Dutch investigation has concluded that the plane was most likely downed by a Russian unit that was probably manned by a Russian crew, though other possibilities have not yet been ruled out.[28][29]
In July 2015 Malaysia proposed a United Nations resolution to set up an international tribunal to prosecute those suspected of being behind the downing of the plane. While the proposal gained a majority on the UN Security Council (11 countries voting for it, 3 abstaining), it was vetoed by Russia.
If I were to venture any guesses right now, I would guess these poor people are collateral (or intentional) damage of Eastern Europe ideological terrorism with same ol' governmental cloak & dagger to save face. Not so much a mission by the 1% to hoard the world's best drugs.
But of course that could easily change if the results of the investigation point out something different.
Edited by Duchykins, 06 August 2015 - 07:33 PM.