Full of Dutch nationals, not Chinese. Also, it's unlikely that "Russia" took it down, they merely supplied the weaponry to a bunch of incompetent hotheads who accidentally shot it down.
According to a report by the Berlin-based Correctiv & Der Spiegel [0], it was Russia's 53rd Air Defence Brigade that was directly operating the missile launcher.
Included Australians too which incensed our government, but what can realistically be done? What's changed as a result?
And I don't think they accidentally shot down the plane. They might've assumed it was a different plane, but from what I could tell, they intended to shoot it down. If I'm trying to avoid accidentally shooting down planes, I'm generally not firing surface-to-air missiles about the place.
It was an arms-length Russian crew then, and that could well have been the case with the other Malaysian plane. Professional support but professional deniability.
