Hillary: Let the Europeans 'Take the Lead' on Downed Plane

'There should be outrage in European capitals’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on The Charlie Rose Show on PBS Thursday night and discussed the downing of a Malaysian Airliner over Ukraine. She told Rose that based on what she has seen so far, "it probably had to be Russian insurgents" who were responsible for the missile attack.

"The questions I’d be asking is who could have shot it down, who had the equipment -- it’s obviously an anti-aircraft missile. Who had the expertise to do that? There does seem to be growing awareness that it probably had to be Russian insurgents... If there is evidence pointing in that direction, the equipment had to come from Russia. What more the Russians might or might not have done, we don't know. There is a great deal of concern that, not only was a civilian plane shot down, but what this means about the continuing conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the role that Russia is playing."

She went on to tell Rose that “the Europeans have to be the ones that take the lead on this. It was a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over European territory - there should be outrage in European capitals.”

“I think Putin is pushing the envelope as far as he thinks he can,” the former First Lady said. “I think he obviously has annexed and occupied Crimea. He is willing to keep Ukraine unstable in order to try and intimidate the Ukrainian government to back off from their approach to the EU, and I think the only language he understands is one that is very tough, very patient, very clear.”

Clinton also said that there's more that can be done beyond the sanctions already in place against Putin. "If Russia keeps weighing in on behalf of the insurgents, there’s a lot more that needs to be done,” she said, “and to put Putin on notice, that he has gone too far, and we are not going to stand idly by.”

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