Poland Confirms Breaches in Organization of Kaczynski's 2010 Visit to Russia

The process of preparations of the visit of then Polish President Lech Kaczynski to Russia in 2010 had been violated by Poland's Government Protection Bureau, Polish Deputy Interior Minister Jaroslaw Zielinski confirmed Tuesday.

WARSAW (Sputnik) — On Monday, Polish media reported that it had obtained part of a secret report of the country's interior ministry about the preparations of the visit. According to the report, several inspections of the aircraft before the flight had been carried out by a person after an apoplectic attack, despite the fact that these activities required physical efforts. Taking into consideration this fact, the flight should had received a level of average risk, but Marian Janicki, who was then-chief of the BOR, agreed to decrease the risk level.

"They [people responsible for the preparations of the flight] had neglected almost everything from start to finish. There were not enough attention paid to the visit, even a coordination meeting had not been organized, despite the fact that it should be a standard [practice]," Zielinski told Polish television.

He added that the BOR had neither appointed a person responsible for the organization of a protection group, nor had assigned a status for the flight needed in the situation.

On April 10, 2010, a Polish jet airliner carrying Kaczynski, his wife and officials crashed amid heavy fog as it attempted to land at an airfield near the Russian city of Smolensk. All 96 people on board died in the crash. The Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee said that the flight crew’s decision not to reroute the plane to an alternative aerodrome led to the crash.

In February 2016, the Polish Defense Ministry said that Warsaw would restart its investigation into the crash from the very beginning.