Russian diplomat in Canberra Alexander Odoevsky says Russia the "victim" of MH17 disaster and wrongly blamed Prime Minister Tony Abbott has demanded Russian President Vladimir Putin apologise for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight and offer compensation to the families of victims. A HIGH-ranking Russian G20 delegate has said his country is the biggest "victim" of the MH17 disaster and did not owe anyone an apology. Second secretary in the Russian Embassy in Canberra Alexander Odoevsky said ­Russia had been wrongly blamed for the crash. "The evidence is this ­happened over Ukrainian airspace controlled by Ukraine, using Ukrainian equipment because Russia did not supply any such equipment," he said. "Russia is the biggest ­"victim" of this crash because it resulted the next day in all the western countries started blaming Russia for this, for something which happened not in Russia. There's a lot of damage in terms of media coverage to the Russian profile because of this. Mr Odoevsky stressed the comments were his personal views and not on behalf of the embassy. The disaster, over ­eastern Ukraine in July, claimed the lives of 298 people, including 38 Australians. Mr Abbott has told Mr Putin he has information a missile launcher taken from Russia into eastern Ukraine was used to destroy the plane. Mr Odoevsky said: "When Tony Abbott says there's ­evidence it's done by Russia but does not present any evidence this sounds a bit strange. We know the German intelligence says it's Ukrainian equipment, so even in the West opinions differ about this. In recent years relations were quite good between the two countries but now it's the politics of the current government to escalate the feeling of Russia as the enemy of Australia which I think does not­ ­reflect the reality. Originally published as Russian diplomat in denial over MH17 tragedy