Russia not releasing documents from plane crash: Poland

WARSAW - Polish investigators cannot complete their probe of the crash that claimed the life of president Lech Kaczynski because prosecutors have not yet received crucial documents from their Russian counterparts, Poland’s Interior Minister Jerzy Miller said Monday.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he has asked the defence minister to send a formal request to Russia for all the documents relating to the April 10 plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, which killed the president and 95 others, many other high-ranking Polish figures.

Tusk said he expected an explanation from Moscow for the delay, which he said may be due to Russian authorities’ problems with with wildfires raging in that country.

“It depends on the point of view,” Tusk said when asked if the delay meant there were problems with Polish and Russian collaboration on the probe. “From the point of view of our investigation … these problems are on the scale that I have asked for this correspondence.”

Miller said he requested the documents several weeks ago but has not yet received a reply from Russia because of what he considered a “procedural delay”.

“We have gaps in Russian documentation significant enough that the commission cannot finalize its investigation,” Miller said. “The commission has finished work on what is easy to document. But the part of the investigation that require Russian documents cannot be finished.”

Polish and Russian prosecutors are currently cooperating on two separate probes into the crash.