Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski threatened the Russian side with “a shadow on bilateral relations” if the Kremlin does not hurry up in handing over to the Poles the wreckage of the Tu-154 plane that crashed near Smolensk two years ago, on which President Lech Kaczynski was flying.

Photo: ITAR-TASS

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow is ready to transfer all elements of the crashed plane to Warsaw, but only after completing an investigation into the causes and circumstances of the tragedy, Ekho Moskvy reports.

“There cannot be artificial deadlines in this case. The investigation must be completed before the material evidence is transferred. This is our legislation, and we cannot change it,” said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

However, experts are sure that the rush is connected with the recent “TNT scandal.” Let us recall that at the end of October the newspaper Rzeczpospolita published an article in which, citing anonymous sources, it stated that TNT was found on the wreckage of the Tu-154. The version of the terrorist attack was denied by both the Polish and Russian sides. The incident became so widespread that the politician and brother of the deceased president, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, even demanded the resignation of the government of Donald Tusk.

Polish prosecutors later denied the press statements, the publication issued an apology, and the author of the material and the editor-in-chief of Rzeczpospolita were fired. However, already in December, the prosecutor's office confirmed that a substance similar to TNT was found in the wreckage. Final conclusions about the presence of explosives on board number 1 can only be drawn after a detailed examination of the aircraft wreckage.

Poland is rushing the Russian Federation to hand over the wreckage of the presidential Tu-154