Polish government spokesman Pawel Gras on Sunday accused three Russian police officers of looting following April's Polish government plane crash in western Russia but Russia denied the accusations.
The Soviet-made Tu-154 crashed near the city of 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 the bank card 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.
Russia 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.
"In this connection, accusations against Smolensk police officers are the more so seen as sacrilegious and cynical," the ministry said.
Przewoznik had been the chief organizer of Katyn memorial events.
His widow told journalists that some $2,000 disappeared from Andrzej's bank card, with the first transaction taking place on the day of the air crash, April 10, and two other transactions occurring in the following two days, also in Smolensk.
Gras said Polish law enforcement agencies informed Russia of the money withdrawal from Przewoznik's card, adding that the three OMON officers were detained shortly after the incident.
But Russia's Interior Ministry officially denied the report.
"This information does not correspond to reality. No Smolensk police officer has been detained over committing acts described in the media-circulated report," it said.
MOSCOW, June 6 (RIA Novosti)
