Mr Putin's victims

The Dutch investigation into the downing of a Boeing jetliner over eastern Ukraine has made its report. It's couched in careful legalese, but the facts are clear: the airliner was shot down, and its passengers and crew murdered, by a surface-to-air missile. That missile was Russian, and it was fired either from Russia itself or from the part of Ukraine that Russia invaded, probably the latter. The "rebels" paraded just such a missile launcher before the attack. The BBC has published testimony that the men controlling the launcher spoke Russian in native and not Ukrainian accents. One or more missile launchers were photographed crossing back into Russia immediately after the shoot-down.

This murder began in the Kremlin. The immediately responsibility belongs to Vladimir Putin, but some also sticks to Barack Obama and the other western leaders who did so much to empower him.