Poland requests that Russia release transcripts of communication between Smolensk tower and Kaczynski's plane
On Saturday, December 24th the Ministry of Defense of Poland demanded that Russia provide the transcript of the communication between the aircraft carrying former Polish President Kaczynski and the Smolensk tower before the aircraft crashed in 2010. Excerpts from the decrypted recordings were quoted by the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the annual press conference on December 23rd.
"The speech of the Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated that the Russian authorities possess the text of the communications between the pilot and the passengers which was never given to the Polish side," a statement published on the Polish Ministry’s website read.
An interpretation of the tragedy presented by Putin is, according to the statement, "false" and "leads to a systematic vilification of Poland by Russian politicians."
The Polish side believes that the excerpt quoted by Putin is "a falsification made up by the Russian side", and Russia provides the world community with "a false version of the tragedy.”
On December 23rd, Putin said that he "personally read" the decrypted recording of the communication between the pilot and a security person of the Polish president. According to Putin, a security guard forced the pilot to begin landing at the airfield despite the poor weather conditions.
The Tu-154 airliner carrying the Polish government delegation crashed on April 10th, 2010. As a result, all 96 people on board were killed, including President Lech Kaczyński.