By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Warsaw : Differences between Russian and Polish reports into the plane crash that killed then Polish president Lech Kaczynski will not affect bilateral relations, a top Polish official has said.
Poland last week released its final report on Kaczynski’s plane crash, suggesting that both the Polish flight crew and Russian air traffic controllers were at fault.
Russia’s aviation investigators MAK filed its own report while Polish Interior Minister Jerzy Miller headed the country’s commission into the cause of the crash.
Polish Senate speaker Bogdan Borusewicz said Wednesday: “The differences between MAK and Miller’s conclusions will not spoil Russian-Polish relations.”
However, Borusewicz did not rule out possible further arguments on the report.
In January, the Interstate Aviation Committee – known as MAK – released the Russian version of the high-profile tragedy, putting the blame for the crash on the Polish crew.
Polish politicians denounced the report, saying it was one-sided and a cover-up.
A Tu-154 plane carrying Kaczynski, his wife and a host of top officials crashed in heavy fog as it attempted to land at an airfield near the western Russian city of Smolensk. All 96 people on board the plane died in the crash.
The delegation was flying to Smolensk to mark the 70th anniversary of the 1940 Katyn massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.