Polish crash report 'not based on' Russian equivalent: former minister
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
21.09.2016 07:03
An official Polish report on the 2010 presidential plane crash in western Russia “differed from the Russian version” in many instances, according to former Interior Minister Jerzy Miller.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/CC0
Miller was the head of a commission tasked with compiling a report about the causes of the crash on 10 April 2010, which killed all 96 people on board including Polish President Lech Kaczyński as well as top military and state officials.
A new commission set up by the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party said that Miller had told the members of his commission to stick very closely to a Russian report.
On Tuesday, Miller said that the Polish report “differed from the official Russian report in many aspects”.
“If we had wanted our report to be the same as that of the Russians, we would not have argued with them [over the outcome]. However, we presented a litany of complaints and comments, which we think disputed the Russians' findings,” Miller told the private TVN broadcaster.
The report published by Miller's commission cited a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of Smolensk Military Airport. The Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles.
The wreckage of the crashed presidential plane has never been handed over by Russia to Polish authorities. (rg)
Source: PAP