Mikheil Saakashvili has been quoted as saying by a Polish news website that “Putin targeted Kaczyński because the Polish president, risking his life, flew to Georgia and saved our capital and independence.”
Saakashvili, who was president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, said, as quoted by Poland's Wirtualna Polska online news service: “I remember Putin threatening to shoot down Kaczyński's plane.”
The former Georgian head of state asserted that the April 10, 2010 crash of the Polish president’s jet near the western Russian city of Smolensk was “a logical continuation of the events in Tbilisi.”
Lech Kaczyński in August 2008 travelled to Tbilisi together with the presidents of Ukraine, Lithuania and Estonia to show solidarity with Georgia in the face of Russia's invasion of that country, according to accounts by officials.
He said at the time, as quoted by Poland's niezalezna.pl website: “Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic states, and then, perhaps, the time will come for my country, Poland."
Saakashvili claimed, as cited on the wp.pl website: “Putin had an interest in killing Kaczyński.”
He elaborated that Putin “did not risk losing anything, and by doing that he showed strength across the Russian sphere of influence.
“Let’s say the president of Azerbaijan, for example, immediately thought that if Putin killed the president of Poland, a Western country, he was all the more capable of slaying him as well.”
Saakashvili argued that Putin “also gained in the eyes of Russians, who viewed Kaczyński as an enemy.”
Saakashvili told the Polish website, referring to Putin: “I am convinced he did it."
He added: "... From my point of view, technically, the Russians could easily find a way to cause the plane to crash. They could do that directly or do everything to make the disaster happen.”
Lech Kaczyński died on April 10, 2010, when a Polish plane carrying him, his wife, and 94 others, mainly political and military top brass, crashed while trying to land at the Smolensk airfield in western Russia. All aboard were killed.
Poland's top officials last week attended events marking the ninth anniversary of the fatal presidential plane crash in Russia—a disaster that scarred the national psyche and is still a source of controversy and recriminations.
Hints of foul play
A new Polish commission reinvestigating the 2010 crash said in April 2017 that the plane was probably destroyed by a mid-air explosion and that Russian air traffic controllers deliberately misled Polish pilots about their location as they neared the runway.
The head of the Polish commission said this month that a probe has shown the top officials on board died as a result of an explosion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of 2017 denied Polish suggestions that the 2010 air crash was the result of a Russian conspiracy.
Russia has refused to return the wreckage of the presidential plane to Poland, claiming that it is continuing to investigate the crash.
The new Polish commission, which is still probing the crash, was set up by Poland’s conservative governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which came to power in 2015.
The party is headed by Jarosław Kaczyński, twin brother of Poland’s late President Lech Kaczyński.
PiS has long challenged an official report into the crash issued by the previous Polish government which cited a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of Smolensk Military Airport.
A Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the human rights body the Council of Europe last year called on Russia to “hand over the wreckage of the Polish Air Force Tu-154 to the Polish authorities without further delay” in a manner that “avoids any further deterioration” of potential evidence.
“The continuing refusal of the Russian authorities to return the wreckage and other evidence constitutes an abuse of rights and has fuelled speculation on the Polish side that Russia has something to hide,” the Council of Europe parliamentarians said.
A British laboratory has reportedly found “traces of explosives” in samples from the crashed Polish jet.
A Ukrainian deputy foreign minister said this month that Russia "must answer" for the 2010 plane crash, which killed Poland’s president and 95 others.
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Source: wpolityce.pl, wp.pl