Of course they knew Russia would retaliate.
The sanctions were originally because Russia "invaded" the Ukraine by
proxy with no insignature uniformed soldiers.
When the MH17 ws shot down by a rebel controlled launcher it increased
the tension significantly.
I feel certain no Russian politician or high ranked officer would
have given such an order.
Where the Russians are guilty was to pass such sophisticated equipment
onto under trained operators that could not tell the difference between
commercial aircraft flying one after the other along the same path and
aircraft that they might have had a real interest.
The traffic on that airway was about 400 a day, both ways I presume.

That they withdrew the launchers immediately tells its own story.
Some would have us say do it again sir !
When it comes to trade vulnerabilities no one is more vulnerable than Russia.

Something fishy

“Flight MH-17 Black Boxes To Be Analyzed In ‘Impartial’ London,” and reported that they would be analyzed by the U.S.-allied, anti-Russian, pro-Ukrainian, British Government."

Australian farmers do not need Russian markets, as Asia will buy all our quality goods not taken by Russia. Russia needs Australian goods so it only hurts Russians.

The MH17 had already passed over Ukraine so was hardly a Ukraine Jet fighter following as the explosion detonated in front of the MH17 as evidenced by the shrapnel holes in the cockpit.

Josephus,

When can we expect the Australian sanctions against Indonesia for their genocidal murders of native Papuans?

see: http://freewestpapua.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/murib.jpg

Philip S, being a bit paranoid are we ?
A bit of thought will make you realise that there can be nothing in
the boxes that can expand more than a millisecond or so after the hit.
We all know what happened, the plane disintegrated.
All recording would have stopped immediately.
About all that could be on the cockpit voice recorder would be if they saw it coming.
Thats not likely as pilots don't spend a lot of time looking out the windows.
I doubt if they saw anything as it would have come up underneath the plane.

Josephus, the Russians economy is already in not a good way. Their
GDP is 0.20 %.

Incidentally did I see on ABC news that our expected GDP will be 0.25% ?
If I heard that right we are on the verge of tipping into recession.
The MH17 was still over Ukraine but in a few minutes would have been
over Russia.

About all that the flight recorders will show is a sudden cessation of all functions commensurate with a sudden hit by aa explosive missile.