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Video of Russians ‘shooting Polish air crash survivors’
‘Give me a gun... Kill him!’ Is this how the air crash that claimed President Kaczynski really ended?
A video of Russians apparently shooting survivors of the plane crash that killed the Polish president Lech Kaczynski last month has emerged on YouTube.
Officially, the Tupolev-154 crashed in fog as it attempted to land in Smolensk, killing all 96 people aboard. Air traffic controllers had warned the pilot to fly on to Moscow or Minsk. It was suggested that Kaczynski himself overruled the advice because he did not want to miss a ceremony to commemorate the World War Two massacre of Polish soldiers by Russians in Katyn.
The video (above), in common with others of the conspiracy genre, is clear as mud. The cameraman walks through a misty woodland and the burning wreckage of the Polish plane can be seen through the trees.
Off camera, voices speak in Russian. A corner of the video is digitally enhanced and grainy figures can be seen walking among the wreckage in the distance.
The subtitles say: "Oh my God! All of them. Kill them."
Then: "Surround him! Go around! He's running away!"
More grainy figures are seen. Then: "Give me a gun. Come here you bastard! Kill him."
Apparently the plane crash survivors say: "Do not kill us!"
Two gun shots are then heard.
In a useful plot twist, the person who shot the video is rumoured to have been stabbed in the back in Ukraine a few days later before dying in hospital, conveniently allowing conspiracy theorists to avoid the need to actually produce someone who could back up the authenticity of the video. Inevitably, Mossad is also mentioned.
There is a healthy dose of scepticism on the internet. One Russian speaker seems happy to accept the video is not faked, but claims the phrases translated as, "Give me a gun" and "Don't kill us", are actually: "Get the fuck away from here" and "Go away".
"Which is what you would expect the emergency services to say to random people walking into a crash site with a camera to gawk. I don't know who did the translation, but he is a provocateur, who wants to fuel hate against Russia's government."
Others point out that even if the gun shots were real, they could simply be the ammunition of the Polish president’s bodyguards exploding in the fire. They should also be sufficient to ensure the formation of a new conspiracy myth. ·
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I love conspiracy theories, but this one makes no sense. Gunshot wounds, even on charred corpses, are relatively easy to find with modern post-mortem techniques. It's doubtful whether any Russian official would consider such an action when there is a general thawing of Polish-Russian relations - shooting survivors on a presidential plane is tantamount to an act of war, and neither side wants this.
Mossad? Why? Although right-wing and Catholic, like several presidents before him Kaczynski and his wife were very supportive of Jewish cultural activities. There is a good relationship with Israel, considerable military co-operation between the two countries, and few, if any, outstanding issues.
The movie clip seems genuine, but it merely shows the confusion and chaos in the aftermath of a plane crash, and heightened emotions - not surprising.
If there was a conspiracy, the evidence at present is underwhelming.