A version of events presented by Vladimir Putin to Polish counterpart Donald Tusk on the day of the 2010 presidential plane crash in Smolensk contradicts official reports by Polish and Russian authorities, the Polish defence minister has said, according to Radio Poland.
Poland is in possession of a recording of a conversation from 10 April 2010, between then Russian PM Vladimir Putin and then Polish PM Donald Tusk in Smolensk, western Russia, hours after the crash, Poland`s Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz has said, Radio Poland reports.
Macierewicz told the Gazeta Polska weekly that Putin presented a version of events which ”was inconsistent with” later reports by Russia`s Interstate Aviation Committee, and by Poland`s former Interior Minister Jerzy Miller.
Miller headed a commission investigating the reasons behind the crash.
Macierewicz said that in the meeting between Tusk and Putin just hours after the crash, ”there is not a word about a birch tree, about the plane turning over on its back” theories which were quoted in the official Polish report.
The governing Law and Justice (PiS) party has opened a new commission to find out what led to the crash as the Polish presidential plane was attempting to land at the Smolensk military airport.
All 96 people on board, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, were killed in the disaster.
