Its always an accident; perhaps negligence or incompetence, mistaken identity, maybe even manslaughter, but never murder. This has happened several times before, with the US, USSR, Ukraine, Israel and others being the triggermen.

The difference is that when the Russians do it they try and blame the victim. If Putin, who must have know from the start what actually happened, had simply fessed up and stared cooperating with the West,and paid the bill, this whole incident would be forgotten by now.

Putin's response is reminiscent of the US Congressman who claimed the Vincennes shootdown of an Iranian Airbus was actually staged by the Iranians just to embarrass us; that they had faked the plane's IFF, or blown it up deliberately, and had seeded the ocean with corpses just to humiliate us. He pointed out as evidence that many of the bodies in photographs were nude. He did not know that bodies falling from great heights often have their clothing ripped away by the wind, as we have witnessed in Ukraine.

This incident is easy to understand, and not uncommon in the annals of friendly fire and collateral damage. Excited and inexperienced gunners, flush from several victories against legitimate targets, got trigger-happy and screwed up. Its not all that different than what happened with Vincennes. The real difference is the subsequent coverup by the command authority.