An investigation into the 1940 Katyn massacre, when thousands of Polish officers were killed by Soviet secret police, cannot be reopened under current Russian legislation, Russia's chief military prosecutor said on Monday.
"From the point of view of the statute of limitations, the investigation into the case cannot be reopened," Sergei Fridinsky said.
The Katyn massacre saw thousands of officers, police and civilians taken prisoner during the 1939 partitioning of Poland by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
The Soviet Union tried to blame the massacre on the Nazis, saying the killings took place in 1941, when the territory was in German hands. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev formally admitted in 1990 that the executions took place around 1940, and were carried out by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD.
In 1990s, Russia handed over to Poland copies of archive documents from the top-secret File No.1, which placed the blame solely on the Soviet Union.
In September 1990 Russian prosecutors also launched a criminal case into the killings of over 21,000 Poles, known as "Case No.159." The case was closed in 2004.
On May 8, Russia handed over to Poland 67 volumes of Case No.159. Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, which has been investigating the case since November 30, 2004, has proposed including Russia's materials into its own investigation.
MOSCOW, May 31 (RIA Novosti)
