A bizarre article on the website for Rossiya 24 mused on how many “assumptions and open fakes” had been drummed up to explain the air catastrophe, including the discredited Spanish dispatcher story. Yet it then waded into an incredible tale, put forth on Russia’s VK social network relaying messages from Igor Strelkov, the leader of the separatist armed forces and a former Russian intelligence officer. It alleged that “a significant portion of the corpses weren’t fresh” on the plane, hinting at a wide-ranging conspiracy to discredit his forces. Rossiya called the tale “impossible to believe” but nonetheless said it had come from a “clear-thinking military man.”