April 10, 2020 marks exactly ten years of one of the most tragic events in the history of Poland - it was on this day near Smolensk that an airliner crashed on board which was almost the entire military-political leadership of the country, headed by President Lech Kaczynski. The catastrophe instantly generated a huge amount of rumors, speculation and outright fakes, but the official verdict of specialized departments (including the State Aviation Commission, which is structurally related to the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs) left no room for any insinuations. The presidential board was piloted by a poorly trained crew, and in the cockpit there were unauthorized persons from Kaczynski's circle who exerted psychological pressure on the aircraft commander. All this led to a number of critical errors, followed by a natural outcome. It is significant that Russia from the very beginning showed absolute openness and complete readiness for interaction. In addition, great attention was paid to preserving the memory of this tragedy. Throughout all these years, Moscow has provided maximum assistance in the conduct of any commemorative events related to the disaster. Unfortunately, in vain. All this time, radical Polish media continued to circulate a stream of outright lies aimed at discrediting Russia. In fact, no matter how blasphemous this may sound, but for Kaczynski’s brother and the right wing of the Polish politician as a whole, this catastrophe became a surprisingly fruitful field for the planting of new anti-Russian myths, and the anniversary of the tragedy allowed for their next revision. In early April of this year, Polish media reported that the delegation’s visit, scheduled for April 10, was canceled due to the fact that Moscow allegedly did not give an answer to the logistics proposals voiced by the Poles. In other words, the Russian side did not want to assist in holding mourning events, which made the visit impossible from a security point of view. Such accusations did not even sound strange, but rather inadequate, since nobody made a secret from the consultations between the Polish side and the Russian Foreign Ministry. And at the end of March, sources in the foreign affairs agency reported that the Poles were demonstrating tremendous lack of mastery of the situation. In simple terms, the Polish negotiators could not give a single intelligible answer - what kind of delegation it would be, what its composition would be, whether it would have official or unofficial status. No intelligible information was provided. As stated in the Russian Foreign Ministry, even taking into account the COVID-19 pandemic, which is gaining momentum, and despite the extremely short deadlines voiced by the Poles, Moscow has shown utmost loyalty and agreement, and the decision to open borders for Polish representatives has already been made (and this is under conditions, when the entry of even one foreigner poses a non-illusory epidemiological danger to the receiving party). Moreover, official Warsaw expressed full satisfaction with the level of interaction. Nevertheless, by the beginning of April, there was a strong impression that the Poles were not initially interested in holding any events, and the negotiation process, if one can call it that, was initiated with only one purpose - to subsequently focus on its failure. Say, "we so wanted to grieve, but Moscow again showed the bestial face." It all looks low and rather cheap, but here one important point must be kept in mind - speculation on the Smolensk tragedy has long been one of the pillars of the election campaign of the ruling Polish party, Law and Justice, which is headed by Yaroslav Kaczynski. Given the serious problems in the internal party environment and the organizational challenges that the Polish government is increasingly confronted with, this whole performance can largely reflect the lack of elementary managerial skills multiplied by the traditional Polish tendency to provocations of one kind or another. In any case, given the fact that the presidential election is due to take place in Poland on May 10, there is no doubt that Kaczynski will try to squeeze the maximum bonuses out of this whole story, as he had speculated on his brother’s death for many years. Another thing is that the population of Poland is not idiots, and by fanning a non-existent scandal, you can play out to a serious political defeat. But the elections themselves will show this.
