Polish government spokesman Pawel Gras on Sunday accused three Russian police officers of looting after a Polish government plane crashed in western Russia in April but Russia denied the accusations.
The Soviet-made Tu-154 crashed near Smolensk on April 10. All 96 people on board died, including President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and senior Polish officials. They had been due to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre in which Soviet secret police killed thousands of Polish military officers.
Gras told journalists Sunday that three Russian special purpose police unit (OMON) officers illegally used bank cards of top Polish official Andrzej Przewoznik who also died in the crash.
"The three OMON officers who did this shameful deed were promptly detained thanks to cooperation between Poland's domestic security agency and Russian special services," Gras said.
But Russia denied the accusations and called the Polish side's statements "sacrilegious and cynical."
"Smolensk police actions [after the crash]... received a positive assessment; there were no complaints about them," Russia's Interior Ministry said in a statement Sunday.
"On May 8... acting Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski awarded four Smolensk police officers with the order 'For Merits to the Republic of Poland' for [their] work to deal with consequences of the air crash and [for its] investigation," the ministry said.
MOSCOW, June 6 (RIA Novosti)
