<p>"It’s an open question how much control Russia has over these separatists. "</p>
<p>Just as much control as the US had over the Taliban in Afghanistan back in the cold war days… As per dadinator’s post, it looks like Putin did study the chapter of his history textbook about Hitler’s rise to power, but he did not read the part that was talking about what happens when governments supply thugs with weapons.
I do not think Putin has much control over them now, but he should (theoretically) have some control over whoever supplies weapons to these “rebels”.</p>
<p>A friend said to me that he thinks the separatists have become a huge headache for Putin because he can’t control them, which was perfectly fine to Putin as long as the separatists advanced Putin’s goals. Now we see what turning loose these SOBs has wrought. Putin can’t put the genie back in the bottle, short of complete and total denunciation of the separatists and repudiation of the cleaving of Ukraine.</p>
<p>One can’t be too sure about that…especially considering the KAL 007 wasn’t the first instance of Soviet/Russians shooting down civilian airliners. Just look at this previous incident just a few years before:</p>
<p>random “separatists” do not use surface to air missiles… random people do not have those weapons. They come from a government. And random people are not trained to fire them.</p>
<p>The U.S. is not rushing to judgment here.</p>
<p>However, you have to remember that of the various ways the US is tracking down and analyzing the appropriate information, some likely involve classified technologies and/or capabilities. Exactly what the U.S. can get from its eyes and ears around the world and in space is closely held and specifics derived from these capabilities will not be shared. This region has been a hot spot for a few months now, so it is probably safe to assume the U.S. is watching it pretty closely.</p>
<p>That said, it seems like the separatists basically sank themsevles with their publicly available social media posts.</p>
<p>Actually, the fact that it was Malaysian Airlines that got shot down was pretty random. Other carriers had far more flights over that area the week prior, one airline even had 86. Very few American carriers, but I suspect it’s because they don’t fly those particular routes anyways. My airline initially claimed that they haven’t flown that routing since Feb, then they deleted that post. They had us flying that route several times the week prior. I’m disgusted.</p>
<p>There were plenty of reputable carriers who flew that route, including Lufthansa & Singapore Airlines. Here’s a chart showing just how many during the preceeding week:</p>
<p>Terribly sad. At least they found the black boxes and hopefully will figure out the cause. Terrorism is a possibility in that one, no surprise. Islamic extremists fighting, they seem to be popping up everywhere.</p>