If you wanted to believe the CIA is responsible for downing MH17, now you've got the ‘proof’

The Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda has released an audio recording in which two alleged CIA agents are heard forging a plan to bring down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.

The recording features a series of conversations between two men, identified as David Hamilton and David Lloyd Stern. They discuss “preparations” for an operation involving shooting down an airplane using a Buk surface-to-air missile, and a “Plan B” involving placing a bomb in the airplane. The aim of the operation is to discredit separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The “spies” speak English. One of them tells the other that it is critical that he maintains full personal control of the operation, and notes: “I don’t trust Ukrainians. They’re all just dopers and drunks.” Later, one of them claims, “the Russians are hunting me,” and says “I am not going to let our leaders give up on me.”

Foreign Policy has called the recording “comically bad” and has pointed out that one of the men sounds British for the first few conversations, then switches to an American accent. Foreign Policy suspects that the conversations could have been translated from Russian to English using a service like Google Translate. Notably, the men end their conversation by saying “Luck!”—a direct translation of a common way of saying goodbye in Russian.

Komsomolskaya Pravda has also released a video recording of alleged Ukrainian Security Service officers at the controls of a Buk missile launcher. The newspaper claims that the video was leaked from a Ukrainian security officer’s mobile phone.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed on July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. All 298 people onboard were killed. Immediately after the crash, Ukrainian officials blamed pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev says they used a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile to shoot down the plane, claiming that Russia supplied this weapon to the separatists.

Russian officials have argued that a Ukrainian missile likely shot from a Ukrainian Air Force SU-25 fighter jet is responsible for the crash. Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee claims they have eyewitness testimony from a Ukrainian Air Force mechanic confirming this version of events. But Russia’s air-defense systems manufacturer Almaz-Antei conducted its own investigation and concluded that the plane was shot down by a Ukrainian-operated Buk M1 missile.

The results of the Dutch investigation into the tragedy are expected in October 2015. In the meantime, Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution drafted by Malaysia on setting up an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the crash.