Putin: if there was an explosion onboard Polish plane over Smolensk, explosives were placed in Poland
Russian President Vladimir Putin described Poland’s statements as "nonsense," referring to the alleged Russian involvement in the crash of Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s plane near Smolensk in 2010. Putin said this at the annual press conference in Moscow.
"Look, we are tired of this bluff. Just simply tired of it. It is nonsense. You are talking blatant nonsense. There were no explosions. Both Polish and Russian experts have examined this... We grieved [at this tragedy] together with you. But you aggravate the situation without evidence," Putin said.
After that, Putin called on Poland to investigate the possibility that an explosive device was planted on Kaczynski’s plane. "If there were explosions on board, where did the plane take off from? From Moscow or from Warsaw? So [in Poland] they planted them. Did we, some Russian agents go [in the plane] and put the explosives? You’d better look at yourselves," he said.
On April 10, 2010, a Tu-154M plane carrying the Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Polish high-ranking officials crashed near the military airfield in Smolensk, killing all 96 people on board. In April 2017, Poland declared that the plane began to crumble while still in the air.
In August, Poland stated that damage to Kaczynski’s airplane wing showed signs of an explosion.
Minister of National Defense for Poland Antoni Macierewicz claimed that the Smolensk catastrophe was not an accident, and promised to present the experts’ report in the spring. In October, the Commission for the investigation of the Smolensk catastrophe confirmed an explosion on board Kaczynski’s plane.