A Polish government special commission has again claimed that a Russian assassination plan was behind the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and senior members of his administration in 2010.
The commission’s latest report once more alleges that explosives planted on the Soviet-made Tu-154M plane caused the crash on April 10, 2010, in the western Russian city of Smolensk.
In addition to Kaczynski, the crash took the lives of his wife and more than 90 government and armed forces officials as well as many prominent Poles.
Their deaths were the result of an “act of unlawful interference by the Russian side,” the commission's head Antoni Macierewicz told a news conference on April 11.
He denied that any mistakes were made by the Polish crew despite bad weather at the time of the crash.
Two earlier reports by Polish and Russian experts on aviation incidents said the crash in dense fog at the Smolensk airport, which did not have sophisticated aviation equipment, was the result of human error. They found no proof of foul play.
But many Poles, including top members of the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), have questioned the results of the investigation conducted by the previous centrist government.
The latest report repeats many previous allegations made by the commission, which was appointed by the current government, and drums up hostility toward Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine, now in its eighth week.
Lech Kaczynski’s twin brother, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, addressing a crowd of several thousand people in front of the presidential palace on April 10, recalled his brother's policies that were hostile to Moscow and again pointed the finger at Moscow.
Russia has categorically rejected any responsibility for the crash.