>>Because some believe he's SCARED.

Scared of what? The Russian public don't get any of this and wouldn't bat an eyelid if it turned out that Putin shot down the jet himself. Might even give him a burst of approval. Scared of sanctions? OK, except that Russia is a big gas station and Europe needs the gas. Better hope they don't start selling all to the Chinese so European grandmas freeze to death next Winter. Scared of being invaded for being a naughty man? That's been tried before...

>>He (Putin) might believe he stands to gain more in the long run by rebuilding the empire than he'll lose in public opinion.

Public opinion? Sheesh, Putin's approval rating was "only" 61% last year ( a level that would make most Western politicians crow with delight ) but has rebounded to 83% today so despite what we foreign busy-bodies may think, the Russian public loves him more than ever. So Western leaders don't like him very much? That'll probably earn him even more approval at home, since Russian opinion of the US and Europe now is lower than it was in the Cold war.

For interest, Ukraine has published images to show a BUK launcher purportedly in the hands of the rebels just before the tragedy and/or being spirited across into Russia with the implication that the guilty parties are hiding it.

http://www.sbu.gov.ua/sbu/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=129099&cat_id=39574

At least one of the images shows the culprit BUK with the unit number "312" on the side- as seen here

http://www.sbu.gov.ua/sbu/img/publishing/?id=129110

And now here is a video of a Ukrainian government convoy in March. Use pause as the 3rd BUK is passed to see whether you too can see something interesting on the side of the BUK.

http://youtu.be/rm48vi4TghY




Meanwhile a little closer to home, what do you think of this in the USA? http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/18/us-usa-mosque-philadelphia-idUSKBN0FN2PW20140718