PUTRAJAYA, June 20 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today claimed that the recent findings on the culprit behind the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was a “politically-motivated” conclusion to solely blame Russia.

In a press conference, Dr Mahathir also demanded proof that it was indeed Russia which was behind the shooting, adding that the incident was made into a political issue “from the very beginning”.

“We are very unhappy because from the very beginning, it became a political issue on how to accuse Russia of the wrongdoing. Even before they examine, they already said Russia.

“Now they say they have proof. So it is very difficult for us to accept that,” he told reporters.

“That is different, but as far as we are concerned, we want proof of guilt [that Russia did it]. But so far, there is no proof, only hearsay,” he said when asked if he is worried about Malaysia’s palm oil stake with Russia.

Dr Mahathir said he was convinced, therefore, that the investigations were politically motivated.

“Well certainly. From the very beginning they wanted to accuse Russia, and now of course they say they have proven who the person is. This is a ridiculous thing,” he said to a question as to whether he felt the findings of the investigations on MH17 were marred with political interests.

Moscow has denied the allegations made by the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that Russian servicemen were involved in the gunning down of Flight MH17 that was shot down over Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

In a press statement today, the Russian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said that the Russian Federation is the target of “completely unfounded accusations” with intention to discredit the nation in the eyes of the international community.

It pointed out the Russian authorities had also made the unprecedented move of declassifying Russian military equipment and conducting a meticulous experiment in collaboration with Almaz-Antei, to providing primary radar data and documents showing that the missile that downed the Malaysian Boeing belonged to Ukraine.

They also had precision expert analysis proving that the video clips supporting the JIT’s conclusions were fabricated.