What Russian press are saying about air disaster

The Russian media's coverage of the MH17 disaster is in stark contrast to Western reports - focusing on increasingly outlandish claims and conspiracy theories.

One prominent account, which has been picked up by mainstream news organisations such as state-owned Russia-24, is that all the passengers on board the plane were already dead by the time it took off.

This version of events stems from claims allegedly made by both pro-Kremlin rebels and ethnic Russians in the area, who told unnamed sources that the bodies they found amid the wreckage of the plane had already been dead for several days.

Another bizarre explanation for the crash focuses on allegations - reported in a number of publications, including LifeNews.ru - that the plane was either deliberately told to decrease altitude and/or veer off the planned flight path in order to fly over Donetsk.

The reports suggest this made the plane easier for the Ukrainian government to shoot down, implicating pro-Russian rebels who control the area.
The pro-Kremlin, Kazakh-based Tengri News claims the plane had only recently been re-insured and goes into great detail about the level of compensation that could be provided to the victims' families as a result.

Meanwhile another LifeNews.Ru report claims the entire MH17 disaster may have been set up by the U.S. in order to speed up a new world war.

The most popular theory, however, is that the Ukrainian government had mistaken MH17 for Vladimir Putin's private aircraft as it returned home from Brazil.
This failed assasination plot explanation continues to be reported across Russian media – including several state-funded organisations -as do claims that a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet was trailing MH17 in the minutes before it was shot down. (Daily Mail)