Sei all'interno di >> GiroBlog | Centro Studi Est Europa |

*[Chronicle of the events – From the plane crash to the funeral]

 Polish President Lech Kaczynski dies in plane crash in SW Russia

12:24 10/04/2010

An passenger plane en route from Warsaw to Smolensk on Saturday crashed during landing in heavy fog in southwest Russia, killing all passengers on board, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski. According to a Russian Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, there were 132 people on board the aircraft. "On Saturday in the Pechorsk district of the Smolensk region, the Polish president’s Tu-154 crashed during landing in heavy fog at Severny Airport. There were 132 people on board, including the president and his wife," Markin said. He said the exact number of those killed on board the plane is being determined. Earlier it was reported that 87 people were on board.

MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158507225.html

 Human error caused crash of Polish president’s airplane in Russia - source

13:04 10/04/2010

Human error was most likely to blame for the crash of Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s airplane in western Russia in which 132 people including the president died, a Russian security source said. "A mistake by the crew during landing maneuvers has supposedly caused the crash," the source in the regional security bodies, who refused to be identified, told RIA Novosti. There have been no official suggestions of what had caused the crash.

MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158507526.html

 Polish premier calls emergency meeting in Warsaw following death of president

13:45 10/04/2010

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called an emergency government meeting in line with the death of President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in western Russia on Saturday. "All of the Polish ministers are on their way to Warsaw," a spokesman for the government press service told RIA Novosti. In line with the president’s death, Parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski has become the acting president in Poland. Tusk is presently on his way to Warsaw from Gdansk.

WARSAW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158508094.html

 Polish presidential plane could have 96 people on board - Emergencies Ministry [Plus video of the plane’s crash area]

14:02 10/04/2010

The plane of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, which crashed in western Russia on Saturday, could have had 96 people on board rather than 132 as was reported earlier, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said. "According to the latest information, there were 96 people on board including 88 [from the] official delegation," a ministry spokesperson said. Earlier, the spokesman for the investigations committee of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said there were 132 people on board. There were no survivors.

MOSCOW, April 10 (Reuters)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158508378.html

 Russian leaders express condolences over tragic death of Polish president

14:48 10/04/2010

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sent his condolences to acting President, Parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski on the tragic death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash on Saturday. "I, like all Russian citizens, have accepted with deep and sincere shock the news of the tragic death of the Republic of Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and the members of the large Polish delegation near the city of Smolensk, who were on their way for commemorations in Katyn," the Kremlin’s press service quoted Medvedev as saying in his message to the acting Polish president. In line with the president’s death, Parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski has become the acting president in Poland. Komorowski has called an emergency government meeting in Warsaw and is on his way to the Polish capital from Gdansk. It is expected that the acting president will call for presidential elections to be held within 14 days in line with the death of Kaczynski. Medvedev also added in his statement to Komorowski that a complete investigation into the cause of the plane crash would be made in full cooperation with Polish authorities. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has also sent his condolences to his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, in regard to the death of Poland’s president, Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said. "Vladimir Putin called Prime Minister Donald Tusk and expressed his condolences to him personally and the entire Polish nation in regard to the tragic airplane crash outside Smolensk," Peskov said. Polish President Lech Kaczynski and up to 131 others traveling with him to commemorate the mass killing of Polish officers during World War Two died on Saturday when his plane crashed on landing in western Russia. "On Saturday, President Kaczynski’s Tu-154 airplane crashed when landing near the town of Pechorsk, Smolensk region, in heavy fog," Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General’s Investigations Committee said. "There were 132 people on board the plane, including the president and his spouse." In a conflicting report, a spokesperson for Russian Emergencies Ministry said there were 96 people on board. "According to the latest information, there were 96 people on board including 88 [from the] official delegation," the Emergencies Ministry spokesperson said. Both sources said there were no survivors.

MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158508839.html

 Week of mourning announced in Poland after president’s death

16:37 10/04/2010

Poland is to hold seven days of mourning after President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and an official delegation of senior officials were killed in a plane crash in western Russia. "I have just signed a decision on the announcement of a national week of mourning," acting president and parliamentary speaker Bronislaw Komorowski said. "We must all come together in the face of this massive national tragedy," he added. "Today, there is no left wing and no right wing - there is no difference. We all feel for the families of the dead." Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are currently on their way to the site of the crash.

WARSAW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158509900.html

 Air traffic control told Polish president’s plane not to land - paper

16:59 10/04/2010

Russian air traffic controllers advised the pilot of a plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski not to attempt to land, the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza said on Saturday. The paper said the pilot and Kaczynski were advised to turn around and head for Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus, as the Smolensk military aerodrome lacks the necessary navigational equipment to receive planes in heavy fog. But the pilot and Kaczynski ignored the advice, the paper said.

KIEV, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158510160.html

 Medvedev calls for Russian-Polish unity after Kaczynski’s death

17:22 10/04/2010

The Russian and Polish peoples should unite in the aftermath of the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash in western Russia earlier on Saturday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said. A Kremlin statement said Medvedev made the comment in a phone conversation with Poland’s acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski. "It was noted during the conversation that the loss is irreparable, but precisely in these difficult days a consolidation of peoples is very important to jointly to overcome the consequences of this terrible tragedy," a Kremlin statement quoted Medvedev as saying. Medvedev also told the acting Polish leader that Russia would hold a thorough investigation into the crash.

MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158510291.html

 Polish president’s body ’found’ in crash wreckage - source 18:05 10/04/2010

The body of Polish President Lech Kaczynski may have been found in the wreckage of the plane that crashed earlier on Saturday in western Russia, a highly-placed police source told RIA Novosti. Speaking from the scene of the clean-up operation, the source said however that "additional tests, including DNA," would be needed to identify many of the bodies.

MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158510776.html

 UN Secretary General shocked by Polish president’s death

18:10 10/04/2010

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he was shocked by the news of the death of the Polish president in a plane crash in western Russia on Saturday. A total of 97 people died when a plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashed as it attempted to land at an airport in Smolensk "The Secretary-General was shocked to hear the news of the plane crash in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and many other people, including senior officials, were killed in Smolensk, Russia," Ban’s spokesman said. "On behalf of the United Nations, the Secretary-General expresses his deep and heartfelt condolences to the people and Government of Poland and to the families of those who perished," he continued. "The Secretary-General said President Kaczynski had served his country and people with distinction and conviction, and was deservedly respected internationally. That he died en route to an event marking a new level of reconciliation between Poland and Russia is particularly poignant."

MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158510839.html

 Russia to hold day of mourning after Polish president’s death

18:12 10/04/2010

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on Saturday a national day of mourning after President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and an official delegation of senior officials were killed in a plane crash in western Russia. "On behalf of the Russian people, I express the deepest, most heartfelt condolences to the Polish people, and compassion and support to the relatives and friends of the victims," Medvedev said, addressing the Polish people. "On Monday, April 12, Russia will hold a national day of mourning."

GORKI, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158510883.html

 Polish president’s death - world reaction

18:43 10/04/2010

World leaders have been paying tribute to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in west Russia on Saturday. The plane was carrying sixty-year-old Kaczynski, his wife and a delegation of senior officials to a ceremony to commemorate the memory of some 20,000 Polish officers killed by Soviet secret police during World War Two. The Soviet-made Tu-154 hit trees as it approached Smolensk airport in thick fog. All 97 people on board died. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was shocked to hear the news of the crash. "On behalf of the United Nations, the Secretary-General expresses his deep and heartfelt condolences to the people and government of Poland and to the families of those who perished," Ban’s spokesman said.. "The Secretary-General said President Kaczynski had served his country and people with distinction and conviction, and was deservedly respected internationally. That he died en route to an event marking a new level of reconciliation between Poland and Russia is particularly poignant." Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced a national day of mourning for April 12 and called for unity between Russia and Poland in the face of the "terrible tragedy." U.S. President Barack Obama said his "thoughts and prayers are with the Kaczynski family, the loved ones of those killed in this tragic plane crash, and the Polish nation." "Today’s loss is devastating to Poland, to the United States, and to the world. President Kaczynski was a distinguished statesman who played a key role in the Solidarity movement, and he was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dignity," he went on. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Kaczynski would be "mourned across the world." "President Kaczynski was one of the defining actors in Poland’s modern political history," Brown said. "From his role in the Solidarity movement to his long and distinguished career in public service." "All of Germany is mourning and standing with you," German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Kaczynski’s death was a tragedy for Poland. "France loses a friend who was profoundly attached to developing relations between our two countries," the French leader said. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also expressed her condolences.

MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158511446.html

 Putin arrives at scene of Kaczynski plane crash

20:58 10/04/2010

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has arrived at the scene of the plane crash in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 96 other people perished earlier on Saturday. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier named Putin head of a commission on the disaster. The Russian premier is accompanied by a number of senior officials, including Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev. Putin earlier said that bodies of the crash victims would be transported for identification to the Russian capital. He also called his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk to express "his condolences to him personally and the entire Polish nation in regard to the tragic airplane crash near Smolensk," Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

SMOLENSK, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158512947.html

 Pilot of Polish president’s plane was advised not to land

21:48 10/04/2010

The pilot of the plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski attempted to land in thick fog against the advice of air traffic controllers, Russia’s top investigator said. "Recordings confirm the nature of the discussions," Alexander Bastrykin reported to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who heads a commission on the disaster. Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza paper said earlier the pilot and Kaczynski were advised to turn around and head for Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus, as the Smolensk military aerodrome lacked the necessary navigational equipment to receive planes in heavy fog.

SMOLENSK, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158513883.html

 Polish president killed in air crash near Russia’s Smolensk [RT TV]

Published 10 April, 2010, 21:40 / Edited 19 April, 2010, 23:39

http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-04-10/plane-crash-smolensk-region.html

 President’s plane crash tragedy both for Poland, Russia - Putin

00:59 11/04/2010

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Polish president’s plane crash in west Russia is a tragedy not only for Poland but for Russia as well. "This is a terrible tragedy, 97 people were killed. This is first of all a tragedy for Poland and for Polish people, but this is our [Russian] tragedy as well. We mourn with you," Putin said in an interview with a Polish television channel. He added that a state commission would do everything possible to support relatives of those killed in the crash as they are currently arriving in Moscow. "We pray with you," Putin said.

SMOLENSK, April 11 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100411/158516911.html

 Russian investigators study records of crashed Polish president’s plane

10:10 11/04/2010

Russian investigators are studying the records of talks between the pilots of the crashed Polish president’s plane and ground air controllers, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee said on Sunday. Vladimir Markin said both investigators and aviation specialists were studying and deciphering the flight recorders found at the site of the plane’s crash and were also inspecting fragments of the plane wreck. Markov also said that the bodies and body fragments of the air crash victims had been delivered to Moscow for identification. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of the late Polish president, earlier on Sunday identified the bodies of Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria.

MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100411/158520733.html

 Muscovites encircle Polish embassy with flowers and candles

11:30 11/04/2010

Muscovites are lighting candles and laying flowers near the Polish embassy on Sunday to mourn the victims of the devastating plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and several other top officials. Muscovites are coming to the Polish embassy to express their condolences to the Polish people. There are flowers and lit candles all over the place. People leaving notes with condolences in the Russian and Polish languages on the fence around the embassy building. "This tragedy will bring us closer to each other, even though our peoples are very close to each other," a Russian man of Polish origin told RIA Novosti. "These are our people, our friends and a part of our life. We are expressing condolences to the entire Polish people," performers of the Alexandrov Russian army academic song and dance ensemble told RIA Novosti while laying a floral basket near the embassy.

MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100411/158521282.html

 Crashed Polish plane was technically sound - investigators

15:22 11/04/2010

The Polish plane crash near Smolensk in west Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and other top officials was not caused by any technical problems with the jet, Russian investigators said on Sunday. Russian investigators, experts and Polish specialists are jointly investigating the causes of the plane crash. Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, on Sunday reported to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin citing preliminary results that the deciphered records confirmed the absence of technical problems with the plane. "The pilot was informed about complex weather conditions and, nevertheless, made a decision on landing," Bastrykin said.

SMOLENSK, April 11 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100411/158523696.html

 Lech Kaczynski spoke to brother minutes before deadly air crash - parliament deputy

22:01 11/04/2010

Jaroslaw spoke on the phone half an hour before the tragedy that also killed many of the country’s elite, a Polish member of the European Parliament said Sunday. "President Lech Kaczynski called his brother Jaroslaw from the presidential Tu-154 plane 36 minutes prior to the tragic crash," Adam Bielan, who is also a companion of the Kaczynski brothers in the Law and Justice party, said. Bielan said that Jaroslaw asked Lech whether he had landed in Smolensk and Lech answered "not yet," but added that it would happen soon.

WARSAW, April 11 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100411/158527621.html

 Poland thanks Russia for aiding relatives of air crash victims

14:04 12/04/2010

The Polish foreign minister has thanked Russia for providing aid to the relatives of those killed in a devastating plane crash near Smolensk, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. "Poland has expressed its gratitude to the Russian authorities for offering aid following the air crash," the ministry said. The ministry said the statement was made by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski during a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Sunday. "Radoslaw Sikorski thanked the [Russian authorities] for assistance to the relatives of those killed in the disaster," the ministry said. Russia is holding an official day of mourning for the crash victims. Muscovites have been bringing flowers and candle to the Polish embassy. The relatives of the plane crash victims are arriving in Moscow, where the corpses have been transferred for identification. Many of the bodies can be only identified by DNA tests. A special headquarters has been set up by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov to provide assistance to the relatives. The Russian capital has met all the expenses for accommodating the visitors. Arrangements have been also made at Moscow airports, where groups of relatives are being met by doctors and psychologists. The relatives are expected to stay in Moscow for three to four days.

MOSCOW, April 12 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100412/158537520.html

 Medvedev lays flowers at Polish Embassy in Moscow

16:01 12/04/2010

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Polish Embassy in Moscow on Monday to lay flowers in front of a photo of the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife. Medvedev has declared Monday an official day of mourning for the crash victims. The flag at the Polish Embassy is flying at half mast. The emblems and flags are decorated with black ribbons. The pavement near the building is covered with the flowers brought by Muscovites. Many top Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, arrived at the embassy to pay tribute to the victims of the tragedy. The coffin of Kaczynski arrived at the presidential palace in Warsaw on Sunday as tens of thousands of Poles lined the streets to pay their final respects. The president’s body was identified by his twin brother Jaroslaw, a former prime minister, who visited the devastating crash site in the west Russian town of Smolensk. Kaczynski’s coffin will be up on public view from Tuesday until his funeral, scheduled for Saturday. The late Polish president is to be buried with his wife, Maria, whose body is among the 95 in Moscow, many of which have yet to be identified. Medvedev said he would attend the funeral.

MOSCOW, April 12 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100412/158539953.html

 Poland moves to fill key posts after plane crash

Mon Apr 12, 2010 1:59pm EDT

By Adrian Krajewski and Gareth Jones

WARSAW, April 12 (Reuters) - Poland moved on Monday to fill key state posts after a weekend plane crash in western Russia killed President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other top officials, plunging the country into mourning.

Russian investigators found the body of Kaczynski’s wife Maria after the president’s coffin was returned home on Sunday to a Warsaw awash with flowers, candles and red-white national flags, but had identified the remains of only a quarter of the 96 victims of the crash.

Flying in an aged Russian Tupolev plane, Kaczynski and an entourage of military leaders, opposition figures and the central bank governor, went down in thick fog after hitting tree tops near Smolensk airport on Saturday.

Russia has said the pilot ignored advice from air traffic controllers not to land and some media have speculated Kaczynski himself may have ordered the landing in Smolensk, but Poland’s chief prosecutor said there was no evidence at the moment to support that conclusion.

The deaths are a huge blow to the political and military elite, but the crash poses no threat to stability in the country of 38 million people, which is firmly anchored in the European Union and the U.S.-led NATO alliance.

Although the president has power to veto laws in Poland, it is the government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which decides policy. Only three deputy ministers from the government were on the plane.

Financial markets broadly shrugged off the crash, with the Polish zloty little changed against the euro EURPLN= and stocks .WIG20 ending 1 percent higher.

"Despite the terrible loss for Poland, the impact on the main economic variables should remain limited especially given the stability of the Polish economy," economists at Unicredit said in a research note.

COCKPIT RECORDERS DECODED

Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski, a member of Tusk’s centrist Civic Platform (PO) who was favoured to beat the right-wing Kaczynski in an election planned for October, said on Monday he had filled important roles in the president’s chancellery, much of which was wiped out by the crash.

"The first task I am going to set for the new National Security Bureau (BBN) chief is a review of the rules for travel of top military officials," he told reporters.

Kaczynski, a combative nationalist known for his distrust of both the EU and Russia, had been travelling to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish officers by the Soviet NKVD secret police in the nearby Katyn forest.

Speculation that he might have ordered the landing appeared to stem from an incident in 2008, when Georgia fought a brief war with Russia. Kaczynski flew to Georgia at the time to show his solidarity and reportedly grew irate when his pilot refused to land in the capital Tbilisi due to safety concerns.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said both cockpit voice recorders had been retreived from the wreckage and were being decoded.

"It has been confirmed that the crew in a timely manner received a warning about adverse weather conditions and a recommendation to land at another airport," Ivanov said.

Komorowski said he would not rush a decision on who should replace Slawomir Skrzypek, the governor of the central bank. [nWSF008921] [nLDE63B0A8]

But the bank’s Monetary Policy Council met on Monday and agreed that Skrzypek’s deputy Piotr Wiesiolek, who has taken over day-to-day operations, would chair sessions of the rate-setting body until a new governor was chosen.

The central bank has not changed interest rates since June of last year but it intervened in the foreign exchange markets on the day before the crash, selling zlotys for euros in order to push down the value of the Polish currency — its first such move since a free float was introduced a decade ago.

The Polish economy was the only one in the 27-nation European Union which did not contract in 2009 and the zloty had risen to 16-month highs versus the euro before the intervention.

ELECTION MOVED FORWARD

On Tuesday, a special joint session of the Polish parliament will be held and Komorowski is expected to begin talks with the country’s political parties on setting a date for the presidential vote.

"I want to ask the opposition factions for their preferred election date," Komorowski told Polish television. "If that doesn’t yield a result, I’ll be inclned to call the elections for the latest possible time. The last date that is technically possible is July 4."

Russia’s health minister Tatyana Golikova said a total of 24 bodies from the crash had been identified so far. On a visit to Moscow, her Polish counterpart Ewa Kopacz expressed gratitude to the Russian authorities for their professionalism and collaborative approach.

The crash shocked Russia, Poland’s historic foe and communist-era overlord, which declared Monday a day of mourning.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev laid flowers at a candle-lit memorial to Kaczynski at the Polish embassy in Moscow on Monday and signed a book of condolences.

Kaczynski’s coffin, greeted in silence by tens of thousands of people lining its route from Warsaw’s military airport to the presidential palace on Sunday, will be available for public viewing from Tuesday. A funeral date has not been set.

"We have to ask ourselves why this happened. It’s not about arguing or placing blame on anyone, but we have to draw conclusions, lessons for the future," Lech Walesa, Poland’s former president and onetime leader of the Solidarity movement that overthrew communism in 1989, told Polish TV.

Kaczynski belonged to Solidarity in the 1980s but later quarrelled with Walesa. He and his identical twin brother Jaroslaw, a former prime minister, have led opposition to some of Tusk’s market reforms and his drive to take Poland into the euro as soon as possible.

(Additional reporting by Conor Sweeney in Moscow, Chris Borowski in Warsaw; Writing by Noah Barkin)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE63B0C1

 Polish army faces uncertainty after commanders die

Mon Apr 12, 2010 7:34am EDT

Bu Gabriela Baczynska

WARSAW, April 12 (Reuters) - The loss of Poland’s top military commanders in a plane crash raises questions over its mission in Afghanistan and the NATO ally’s drive to modernise the armed forces.

The chief of the General Staff and the heads of the army, navy and air forces were among the 96 people including President Lech Kaczynski, to perish when their Tupolev TU-154 aircraft crashed as it tried to land in western Russia.

"This is the greatest tragedy in the history of the Polish armed forces," Stanislaw Koziej, a retired general and former defence minister, told Reuters.

"There has never been such a case where the top command of the army and its commander-in-chief (Kacynski) all died at the same time."

The crash coincides with the dispatch of an additional 600 troops to reinforce Poland’s 2,000-strong contingent in the NATO mission in Afghanistan and with reforms aimed at modernising the military after a decision to scrap conscription.

Analysts said the crash could hamper decision making both for the Afghan mission and other major projects. The modernisation drive envisages creating a fully professional, well-paid military totalling 200,000 personnel.

"This tragedy will have consequences for the Afghan mission for sure, though it is hard to say where things will go for now. We have lost the intellectual elite of the Polish army," said Wojciech Luczak, a military expert.

Among the dead was General Franciszek Gagor, chief of the general staff, who had been mooted as a possible candidate for a future senior post in the NATO alliance.

Kaczynski and his entourage perished while travelling to the Katyn forest in Russia to mark the murder of some 22,000 of Poland’s military, political and intellectual elite by Soviet forces in 1940, months after Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler invaded Poland.

WHY FLYING TOGETHER?

The crash has raised questions over basic procedures and the state of Poland’s government air fleet.

"How is it possible that all these top people, military and civilian, came to be travelling on the same plane?" said Luczak.

"We have to re-think the whole functioning of the air force. This tragedy is just the latest in a series (of accidents) and shows we cannot keep on improvising all the time due to a lack of proper equipment."

A military plane carrying 20 people, mostly senior Polish air force personnel, home from an air security conference crashed in Poland in 2008. All on board perished.

After that accident Poland introduced new security measures forbidding the heads of military units to fly together with their deputies.

The deputies of the generals killed on Saturday have already taken over their superiors’ duties and Poland’s defence minister is expected to nominate new permanent replacements soon.

Poland’s Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski, who served as defence minister in 2000-2001, must approve the nominations.

"The military cannot function without its top brass and replacements have to be chosen soon. Komorowski knows the military quite well and has always been seen as a person who cared about the armed forces," Janusz Onyszkiewicz, a former defence minister, said.

Onyszkiewicz noted that civilians killed in Saturday’s crash would also need replacing. They included Deputy Defence Minister Stanislaw Komorowski and the head of the National Security Bureau (BBN), Aleksander Szczyglo. (Writing by Gareth Jones and Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Matthew Jones)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6390H0

 Polish military prosecutors begin own investigation into presidential plane crash

16:25 13/04/2010

Polish military prosecutors have opened an investigation into the plane crash that claimed the lives of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of the country’s top officials, Polish Attorney General Krzysztof Parulski said on Tuesday. "The Military Prosecutor’s Office is carrying out an independent investigation [of the accident]," he said.

MOSCOW, April 13 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100413/158559034.html

 Crashed Polish plane landed without permission - air traffic controller

16:50 13/04/2010

The crew of the Polish president’s plane, which crashed in Russia last Saturday killing President Lech Kaczynski and other top officials, attempted to land without permission, an air traffic controller said on Tuesday. Col. (Ret.) Anatoly Muravyov, the air traffic controller who was guiding the plane during the landing, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda Russian daily that the crew "did not listen" to recommendations to divert to another airport. "The head of the traffic control group warned of poor weather conditions, but the crew went ahead with the landing without permission. And [they] also made their landing approach without permission," Muravyov said. "The [control tower] head said three times to execute a flyby procedure. When the crew did not listen, the control tower could only continue to guide the plane and watch it. It was the only landing approach, the plane crashed at once," he added. Muravyov said the controllers were unable to give a direct command to divert because "we have no rights to give orders to civilian pilots." "Conversations with the crew were in Russian and sometimes in bad English. It hampered understanding," he said, adding that the fatal crash was caused by a combination of factors. The traffic controller said the plane’s crew did not follow the standard procedure of informing the control tower of all the performed maneuvers and altitude, possibly because of a language barrier. "Weather conditions, probably a crew mistake, loss of altitude and the pilot’s ambition to land the plane by all means. I think this ambition was due to the fact that there were such high-ranking people onboard... Because of... this false idea that diverting to another airport is a shame the pilot took so many people to Heaven with him," Muravyov said. The Russian traffic controllers successfully guided two planes prior to the ill-fated Tu-154 requested landing. The first, a Yak-40, landed successfully in the Severny airfield, the second, an Il-76 was diverted to Vnukovo Airport in Moscow.

MOSCOW, April 13 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100413/158559617.html

 Poland thanks Russia for help in presidential plane crash probe

18:50 13/04/2010

Poland is thankful to Russia for its help in investigating the deadly plane crash near the western Russian city of Smolensk, which claimed the lives of the Polish president and dozens of the country’s top officials. "I would like to express my personal opinion and the opinions of my colleagues. We are all impressed by how well the investigation was organized by Russian specialists," Polish Attorney General Krzysztof Parulski said on Tuesday during a meeting in the situation room in Moscow, addressing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who was also present. "I would like to say thank you for the hospitality and assistance. I’m convinced that without active cooperation we would be unable to establish the causes [of the accident]," he went on. Russian investigators, experts and Polish specialists are jointly investigating the causes of the deadly crash. Polish military prosecutors, however, have opened their own investigation into the accident. "The cooperation between us goes far beyond the limits of the existing Convention on mutual legal assistance," Parulski added. As of Monday, 87 dead bodies have been recovered by Russian rescuers at the crash site. They are being sent to Moscow for identification procedures. A special headquarters has been set up by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov to provide assistance to the relatives arriving to the capital to identify the deceased. The Russian capital has taken upon itself all the expenses for accommodating the visitors. On Tuesday, Russia will begin repatriating the bodies recovered from the wreckage.

MOSCOW, April 13 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100413/158562155.html

 Russian President Medvedev to attend Kaczynski’s funeral on Sunday

13:55 14/04/2010

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev will attend the funeral of late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, who died on Saturday in a plane crash in western Russia, the Kremlin announced on Wednesday The national mourning period for the victims of the plane crash has been prolonged until midnight on Sunday by acting president Bronislaw Komorowski, a governmental spokesman told journalists on Wednesday. "The mourning period has been extended to coincide with funeral of the Polish president and his wife in Krakow on Sunday" the spokesman said.

WARSAW, April 14 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100414/158576249.html

 Belarus leader blames Kaczynski for air crash

Thu Apr 15, 2010 4:06am EDT

MINSK, April 15 (Reuters) - Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko has said he believes Polish President Lech Kaczynski gave the final order to land his plane which crashed on Saturday in Russia, killing all on board, Interfax news agency reported.

Kaczynski, a combative nationalist known for his distrust of both the European Union and Russia, had been travelling to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers by Soviet secret police in the Katyn forest in western Russia when his plane went down on Saturday in thick fog.

Russian air traffic controllers in Smolensk urged the pilot to divert to another airport because of poor visibility, but say he ignored the advice and made four attempts to land before hitting tree-tops and crashing.

"It is clear who’s responsible for this. Guilty or not guilty, you are the number one person and you are responsible for it," Lukashenko was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Interfax.

"If the number one aircraft with the president on board is in flight and there is some kind of irregularity, the captain reports the situation directly to the president," said Lukashenko, who has stormy relations with Warsaw after a crackdown on ethnic Poles in Belarus.

"The president asks whether the plane can be landed in this situation. But it’s nevertheless the president who has the final say, it’s he who decides whether the plane is to land or not, but the pilots don’t have to obey."

Russian officials are decoding the two cockpit voice recorders recovered from the flight and expect to complete a preliminary review of the data by the end of the week.

Some Polish media have speculated that Kaczynski, in his determination not to miss the Katyn anniversary event, may have ordered the pilot to land but prosecutors looking into the crash have said there is no evidence so far to support that view.

The speculation is based in large part on an incident in 2008, when Kaczynski flew to Georgia to show his solidarity with the country during its brief war with Russia.

He grew irate when his pilot refused to land in the capital Tbilisi because of safety concerns, later accusing him of cowardice for diverting to Azerbaijan and pushing for him to be fired. (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Conor Humphries and Noah Barkin, editing by Philippa Fletcher)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE63E0C8

 Polish and Russian investigators turn up new clues in plane crash scene

Published 15 April, 2010, 17:33 / Edited 20 April, 2010, 04:28

The crash sent shockwaves of grief around the world, and was powerful enough to bring out some soul-searching between Poland and Russia, two countries that have a lengthy history of animosity between them. The Polish people were especially touched when they saw footage of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin console his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, with an embrace as the two men met at the crash site.

One high-ranking Polish politician said that it was inappropriate to dub the fatal plane crash a “Second Katyn,” while suggesting that the tragedy may help mend strained Polish-Russian relations.

“Though [the plane crash] was initially called a ‘Second Katyn’, it is quite another matter. The Communist state killed our officers and drove a wedge between us which we are still struggling to overcome. The recent tragedy, on the contrary, brought our states and peoples together,” Marshal of the Senate Bogdan Borusewicz told the TVN24 channel.

Borusewicz said that those who think that relations between the two states will worsen are in a minority.

“Russians have changed a great deal,” he said, praising the Russian reaction to the disaster.

Investigators examine black boxes

Contrary to original reports, the chairperson of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said on Thursday that the presidential aircraft made just one attempt to land before crashing.

“Media reports that the Polish plane made three or four attempts to land are false. I can say that there was only one landing attempt,” Tatyana Anodina said.

The IAC also confirmed on Friday that the aircraft sheared a line of trees about one kilometer away from the start of the runway.

“We have established that the plane had first contact with trees about 1,050 meters from the runway and about 40-45 meters to the left of the final approach line,” the IAC said in its latest report on the crash investigation. “The plane hit another tree with its left wing after 200 meters and rolled sharply to the left.”

“Most of the fragments of the plane are scattered around an area about 350-500 meters away and 150 meters to the left of the runway,” the IAC report continues.

"At the moment all aircraft fragments, personal belongings, documents, valuables and other items of interest to the investigation have been removed from the site of the crash," Vladimir Markin said, adding that investigators are continuing their work in Smolensk and Moscow.

Anodina said Russian and Polish investigators were cooperating to determine what caused last Saturday’s tragedy, which led to the death of many of Poland’s top political, military and business elite.

“Work is in progress. It is scrupulous and being carried out in full cooperation with the Polish side,” the chairwoman told RIA Novosti. “When it is over, the commission will make the results public.”

Meanwhile, early reports suggest that the president and other VIPs aboard did not pressure the pilots to land “no matter what” – despite the poor visibility and safety concerns.

Interfax on Thursday quoted an anonymous source in the panel of experts that pilot error was the likely culprit in Saturday’s crash.

“The panel’s analysis, namely data from the black boxes, shows that it was pilot’s mistake that caused the crash,” the source said, adding that the pilots were aware of their situation before the crash, saying that the final moments of conversation between the pilots were “dramatic.”

Russian and Polish specialists are jointly investigating the causes of the deadly crash. Polish military prosecutors, however, have opened their own investigation into the accident.

Meanwhile, the painstaking process of identifying the bodies from the crash continues. Already, 74 victims have been identified, a source in the Moscow center for assisting relatives of the victims told Interfax.

“Identification procedures will continue on Friday. A plane carrying 34 sealed coffins with victims’ remains flew from [Moscow’s] Domodedovo airport to Warsaw at 16:25 on Thursday,” the source said.

Finally, as if Poland does not have enough to think about, meteorologists are keeping their eye on a massive ash cloud, spewed out by a volcano in Iceland that has halted flights across Europe for two consecutive days.

Flights across much of Europe are expected to be severely disrupted well into Saturday because of the drifting ash, officials said. Much of the airspace across northern and western Europe has been shut down, and flight control officials said some 17,000 flights would be cancelled on Friday.

Poland’s PAP news agency reported Thursday evening that the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency prohibited flights over part of the country until further notice. Flights in and out of Gdansk airport were canceled.

However, Polish TVN24 channel on Friday said the country’s authorities had no plans to postpone the ceremony.

Robert Bridge, RT

http://rt.com/Politics/2010-04-15/polish-russian-experts-clues.html

 Kaczynski tragedy brings Russia, Poland closer - senate head

13:13 16/04/2010

A plane crash in west Russia that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 96 other people has brought Moscow and Warsaw closer, the head of Poland’s senate said. "Though it [the plane crash] was initially called a second Katyn, it is quite another matter. The communist state killed our officers and drove a wedge between us which we are still struggling to overcome. The recent tragedy, on the contrary, brought our states and peoples together," Marshal of the Senate Bogdan Borusewicz told the TVN24 channel. Borusewicz said that those who think that relations between the two states will worsen are in a minority. "Russians have changed a great deal," he said, praising the Russian reaction to the disaster and in particular statements by President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100416/158607144.html

 Poland will not delay president’s funeral over volcanic eruption

13:39 16/04/2010

The Polish authorities have no plans to postpone the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in a plane crash last week, because of ash clouds from a volcanic eruption in Iceland, the Polish TVN24 channel said on Friday. All air traffic has been suspended in several north European countries, and the deputy chief of the Chancellery of the President of Poland, Jacek Sasin, said earlier that some world leaders could be prevented from coming to pay their last respects to Kaczynski. The funeral for late Kaczynski and his wife Maria is scheduled for Sunday.

MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100416/158607867.html

 Obama cancels Poland trip because of volcanic ash

Sat Apr 17, 2010 3:22pm EDT

WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama scrapped his trip to Poland on Saturday for the state funeral of President Lech Kaczynski, citing a hazard to air travel from a huge volcanic ash cloud spreading over Europe.

"I spoke with acting President (Bronislaw) Komorowski and told him that I regret that I will not be able to make it to Poland due to the volcanic ash that is disrupting air travel over Europe," Obama said in a statement issued hours before he was due to fly from Washington.

"Michelle and I continue to have the Polish people in our thoughts and prayers and will support them in any way I can as they recover from this terrible tragedy. President Kaczynski was a patriot and close friend and ally of the United States, as were those who died alongside him, and the American people will never forget the lives they led."

Poland, part of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, is now a member of NATO and a close U.S. ally.

Obama was to attend the funeral on Sunday for Kaczynski, who was killed with his wife Maria and 94 Polish political and military officials in a plane crash a week ago in Russia. [ID:nLDE63G0FS]

The volcanic ash cloud drifting across Europe from Iceland has closed Polish airports and it was unclear how many world leaders would manage to attend the funeral. [ID:nLDE63G001] (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by John O’Callaghan) http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN17181126

 Russia’s Medvedev flies to Poland to attend Kaczynski funeral

12:30 18/04/2010

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has flown to Poland to attend the funeral of Polish leader Lech Kaczynski and his wife, the Kremlin press secretary said on Sunday. Early on Sunday, a Polish military plane delivered the bodies of Kaczynski and his wife Maria to Krakow for burial. Kaczynski and his wife will be buried on Sunday in the medieval Wawel castle, the final resting place of Polish royalty and many other distinguished citizens. The first couple, who along with a delegation of senior officials died in a plane crash near the western Russian city of Smolensk on April 10, will be buried under the castle’s Silver Bell Tower. The Polish Foreign Ministry told RIA Novosti that 81 official foreign delegations would attend the funeral of the country’s first couple. Bells and sirens rang out across Warsaw at noon on Saturday, as a crowd of some 100,000 mourners gathered in the city center to pay tribute to the first couple and 94 other people who died when their plane hit a tree and went down in heavy fog. Residents were able to travel on the city transport free of charge. The ceremony was broadcast on five large screens around the city. The ceremony began with the reading of the names and positions of the 88 Polish officials who were killed, and continued with a memorial mass in the city’s largest square, Pilsudski Square. Later, the coffins of the presidential couple were moved from the Presidential Palace, where they had been on public view since Tuesday, to St. John’s Cathedral. The evening mass in the Cathedral was conducted by Archbishop of Warsaw Kazimierz Nycz. The bodies of the first couple stayed in the Cathedral until Sunday morning, after which they were flown by a military plane to Krakow.

MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100418/158636466.html

 Foreign leaders unable to attend Kaczynski funeral over volcano cloud

13:45 18/04/2010

Foreign leaders are canceling their flights to Poland on Sunday to attend the funeral of Polish leader Lech Kaczynski and his wife over the spread of a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland. Kaczynski and his wife Maria, who along with a delegation of senior officials died in a plane crash near the western Russian city of Smolensk on April 10, will be buried in Krakow on Sunday. The Polish Foreign Ministry has told RIA Novosti that U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozi, Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi and some other foreign leaders would be unable to attend the funeral in Krakow. The eruption on the Eyjafjallajokull Glacier in Iceland, which began on Wednesday, has disabled air traffic throughout central and northern Europe, leaving thousands of travelers stranded. The cloud is expected to remain there for four to five days. Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev flew to Poland on Sunday to attend the funeral of Polish leader Lech Kaczynski and his wife, the Kremlin press office said.

KRAKOW (Poland), April 18 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100418/158637452.html

 Ukraine opens airport, Yanukovich flies to Poland

Sun Apr 18, 2010 5:08am EDT

KIEV, April 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine on Sunday opened Kiev’s Borispol airport, closed since Saturday, and President Viktor Yanukovich left for Krakow to attend the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, a presidential spokesman said.

Industrials

Many world leaders have had to miss the funeral later in the day of Kaczynski, who was killed in a plane crash last week, because of a volcanic ash cloud over Europe which has halted almost all flights in northern and central Europe. "The presidential plane has left for Krakow," a spokeswoman for Yanukovich told Reuters.

Earlier, Ukraine International Airlines said it would resume international flights from Kiev at 0900 GMT.

Other Ukrainian airlines followed suit, resuming internal flights from other Ukrainian cities.

(Reporting by Yuri Kulikov; Writing by Richard Balmforth)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE63H04P20100418

 Medvedev attends funeral service for Polish president, wife

19:51 18/04/2010

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev joined Polish and foreign leaders for the state funeral on Sunday of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife in Krakow, where thousands gathered to pay respects. The funeral service was held in St Mary’s Basilica, from where a procession took the coffins to be buried in the historic Wawel Cathedral. As well as Medvedev, presidents of Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Georgia were among the mourners, but world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama did not attend due to the volcanic ash over Europe grounding flights. Medvedev laid flowers and lit a candle in front of portraits of Kaczynski and his wife before entering the church for the service. An estimated 145,000 people gathered in Krakow to pay their respects, and many also left flowers and candles.

KRAKOW (Poland), April 18 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100418/158640245.html

 Poles bury Kaczynski, eye better ties with Russia

Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:33pm EDT

By Gabriela Baczynska and Wojciech Zurawski

KRAKOW, Poland, April 18 (Reuters) - The leaders of Poland and Russia attending the state funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski said on Sunday his death in a plane crash in Russia must serve as a catalyst for reconciliation between the two Slavic nations.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev braved the closure of Europe’s air space caused by a volcanic ash cloud to attend the funeral in Krakow — a gesture of solidarity that reinforced Polish hopes for improved ties with their communist-era master.

After a solemn mass, two gun carriages bore the coffins of Kaczynski and his wife Maria, draped in the red-and-white national flag, through winding streets to their final resting place in Wawel cathedral high above Poland’s ancient capital.

Tens of thousands of Poles chanted "Lech Kaczynski, we thank you" and waved flags and banners of the 1980s anti-communist Solidarity movement which the combative nationalist and devout Roman Catholic once helped to build.

Their coffins were then laid to rest in the cathedral’s crypt — a hallowed spot for Poles usually reserved for their kings, leading poets and national heroes.

They will be made available for public viewing around the clock immediately after officials leave the site and many of the people gathered in the Krakow’s old town for the funeral ceremony started forming a long line to see the crypt.

Kaczynski, his wife and 94 other, mostly senior Polish political and military officials died when their plane crashed in thick fog near Smolensk in western Russia on April 10.

They had been heading to the Katyn forest to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and intellectuals by Soviet secret police. For decades until 1990, Moscow denied responsibility for the deaths, blaming the Nazis.

"President Lech Kaczynski’s testament must be fulfilled through rapprochement and reconciliation (with Russia)," Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski told mourners in Krakow’s mediaeval St Mary’s Basilica.

"Because of the Smolensk tragedy the whole world has learnt about Katyn," Komorowski said.

Speaking to Polish television shortly before boarding his plane back to Moscow, Medvedev said: "In views of these heavy losses I believe we can make serious efforts to draw our nations closer together, to develop economic relations and find solutions to the most difficult problems, including Katyn."

CRITIC OF KREMLIN

Poland and Russia are at loggerheads over various issues, including missile defence, NATO enlargement and gas pipelines.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, conducting the funeral mass beneath Europe’s largest carved Gothic altar, thanked "our Russian brothers" for their help and support since the crash.

"(This) gives us hope for reconciliation between our two great nations," said Dziwisz, former personal secretary of the late Polish pope, John Paul II.

Medvedev assured Komorowski in their private talks in Krakow that Russia would cooperate fully with Poland over the crash, sources told Reuters. Russian investigators have said they believe pilot error caused the disaster.

The Kremlin leader’s presence was ironic in view of Kaczynski’s frequent criticism of what he called Russia’s "imperialism" towards ex-Soviet republics such as Georgia. In his five years as president, Kaczynski never visited Moscow.

Kaczynski’s daughter Marta and his twin brother Jaroslaw, who heads Poland’s main opposition party, had insisted the funeral go ahead on Sunday as planned, despite the ash cloud that has closed Polish and other European airports.

People gathered by the funeral route were applauding when the Kaczynski family, including the late president’s little granddaughter, were moving towards the Wawel hill.

Other mourners included the presidents of Germany, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Georgia.

U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were among those forced by the ash cloud to abandon plans to attend Kaczynski’s funeral.

"President Kaczynski was a patriot and close friend and ally of the United States, as were those who died alongside him, and the American people will never forget the lives they led," Obama said in a statement.

Poland, part of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, is now a member of NATO and a close U.S. ally.

The funeral crowned a week of unprecedented national mourning for the Kaczynskis and the other crash victims.

In Warsaw, more than 180,000 people queued day and night to view the coffins at the presidential palace — on public display since Tuesday — and then at the city’s cathedral.

Some Poles have staged protest rallies and joined petitions on social media site Facebook against the decision to bury Kaczynski at Wawel, saying he did not deserve such an honour.

Kaczynski was a polarising figure whose support levels had fallen to about 20 percent before his death. He had been expected to lose a presidential election due in the autumn and now expected to take place on June 20.

The protests were the first cracks in an otherwise remarkable display of national unity since the crash.

(Writing by Gareth Jones; editing by Michael Roddy)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE63H04N

 Polish president, wife laid to rest in Krakow cathedral

20:49 18/04/2010

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria were buried on Sunday in a crypt in the historic Wawel Cathedral, the main burial site for Polish monarchs for several centuries. They were laid to rest near the tomb of Jozef_Pilsudski, a driving force behind Poland’s reemergence as an independent state after World War I. The burial ceremony followed a state funeral service at St. Mary’s Basilica attended by several foreign leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and a procession with full military honors across Krakow. Thousands of Poles lined the streets to pay their last respects to the presidential couple. The two coffins were placed in an amber-colored tomb inscribed with just their names and a cross. A special plaque in memory of the 96 people who died when the president’s plane crashed in western Russia on April 10 was placed nearby and the crypt was to be open for visitors on Sunday evening.

KRAKOW (Poland), April 18 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100418/158640715.html

*[Lech Kaczynski – brief biography]

 Biography of Polish President Lech Kaczynski killed in plane crash in western Russia

15:48- 10/04/2010

Lech Aleksander Kaczynski was born on June 18, 1949, in Warsaw. He graduated from the Law and Administration faculty of the Warsaw University and later was awarded a PhD from Gdansk University.

In 1977, he began his political career in the Intervention Bureau of the Workers’ Defense Committee (predecessor of the Solidarity Union) and later became involved in activities of the Free Trade Unions. In 1980, he became an adviser to the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee in the Gdansk Shipyard and the Solidarity movement. Also in 1980, he was appointed as an adviser to the Gdansk Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee in the Gdansk Shipyard.

In 1983-1984, he was a head of one of the Solidarity commissions and then became a representative of this trade union in Gdansk.

In 1988, Kaczynski became a member of the Secretariat of the National Executive Committee of NSZZ "Solidarnosc," along with Jaroslaw Kaczynski (his twin brother), Andrzej Celinski and Henryk Wujec. In 1989, he became a member of the Presidium of the National Executive Committee of NSZZ "Solidarnosc" and in 1990, he was appointed the first deputy chairman of the committee.

In 1991, Kaczynski was Minister of State in charge of Security in the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland (the post no longer exists). And in 1992, he became president of the Supreme Chamber of Control which was in existence until 1995.

In the 90s he was supported by the electoral committee Center Civic Alliance, closely related but not identical to the political party Porozumienie Centrum (Center Agreement) led by his brother.

In 2000-2001, he served as the Justice Minister in Jerzy Buzek’s government. In spring 2001, he created together with Jaroslaw Kaczynski a new right-wing party, the Law and Justice National Committee.

From 2002, Lech Kaczynski served as Warsaw mayor.

In 2005, Lech Kaczynski declared his intention to run for the Polish presidential post and later defeated his rival Donald Tusk in the second round of the elections. He assumed the office on December 23, 2005, taking his oath of office before the National Assembly.

Some critics used to complain that Poland was led by two twins as Lech led the state and Jaroslaw controlled legislature and the government. Later, on June 14, 2006, Lech Kaczynski appointed his brother a prime minister. Some tensions occurred in the relations between Poland and its EU partners. At the same time, Poland was a U.S. ally and was considered one of the most possible places for a missile shield deployment.

Russian-Polish relations became tenser. On November 15, 2006, Kaczynski suggested to impose sanctions against Russia if it refused to lift its ban on imports of Polish meat and agricultural products. Poland vetoed talks on cooperation between the European Union and Russia, which were to begin at the EU-Russia summit on November 24. As a result, negotiations were not launched.

In June 2007, Poland faced a political crisis. At the insistence of his brother, Lech Kaczynski sacked Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper who was allegedly involved in corruption scandals. Lepper denied his involvement. However, he pledged to resign from the Samoobrona party, which he led and which was in the government coalition. The scandal developed further when media published reports that the resignation of the deputy PM was the result of a provocation by Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

In October 2007, Poland held early parliamentary elections, in which PiS won some 32.11% of votes and ceded the victory to the Civic Platform of Tusk. On November 5, 2007, Jaroslaw resigned.

In February 2008, Lech Kaczynski’s rating fell to 29%. In June 2008, only 35% of Poles supported the president’s domestic and foreign policies.

Lech Kaczynski had a wife, Maria, who also died in the plane crash on Saturday. The couple had a daughter, Marta, and two granddaughters, six-year-old Ewa and two-year-old Martyna.

MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158509406.html

*[Political aftermaths]

 Useful links

Internet site of Kaczynski’s right-winged political party “Law and Justice” - http://www.pis.org.pl/main.php

Internet site of Prime Minister Tusk’s center-right party “Civic Platform” - http://www.platforma.org/

Internet site of the left winged “Democratic Left Alliance” - http://www.sld.org.pl/

 Poland’s elections: brief information about the participants [this article refers to the elections of 2005, however it gives useful information about major and minor parties]

24.09.2005

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=396

 Party of European Socialists send condolences after Smolensk Air Crash

10/04/2010

Tribute to the deceased SLD members, by SLD The President of the Party of European Socialists (PES) Poul Nyrup Rasmussen described today’s air crash near Smolensk and the loss of 96 lives, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, as ‘a terrible blow for the Polish People’. Mr. Rasmussen and PES General Secretary Philip Cordery, pledged the support of the PES to the victims’ families and to Polish PES members SLD, as they come to terms with the loss of Presidential candidate Jerzy Szmajdzinski, Jolanta Szymanek-Deresz, who was a member of the PES Presidency, and Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka MP. They were all members of PES Member Party SLD. The victims had been due in the Russian town of Katyn, to remember the thousands murdered by the Soviet army in 1940. “That this awful accident should occur on route to such an important commemorative ceremony, with relatives of the victims of oppression also on board, deepens the sense of tragedy”, Mr. Rasmussen added.

http://www.pes.org/en/news/party-european-socialists-send-condolences-after-smolensk-air-crash

 Polish plane crash boosts PM Tusk

Gareth Jones - Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:21pm EDT

WARSAW (Reuters) - The plane crash that killed Poland’s president and leading opposition politicians has removed at one stroke key opponents of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his ruling centrist Civic Platform (PO). While a shocking blow to Poland’s body politic, analysts say constitutional mechanisms will ensure there is no power vacuum and there will not be any long-term impact on stability.

The crash will reinforce Tusk’s already considerable dominance of Polish politics and analysts say it may have relatively muted long-term consequences, though they also stress it is too early to predict the full impact of such an unprecedented accident on the national psychology.

President Lech Kaczynski, his top aides, the central bank governor and seven lawmakers from the main opposition Law and Justice Party (PiS) were among 96 people killed when their plane crashed in thick fog near Smolensk in western Russia.

"Today’s plane crash will raise concerns about (Polish) political stability and relations with Russia, but the outlook is reassuring regarding the institutional transition for the presidency and the central bank," said Preston Keat, an analyst for Eurasia Group, a London-based political risk consultancy. "The leading political and policy actors will move quickly to stabilize the situation."

Kaczynski, 60, and his twin brother Jaroslaw, who heads PiS and was not aboard the plane, have spearheaded opposition to Tusk’s pro-market economic policies, his embrace of the European Union and his push for early adoption of the euro.

Lech Kaczynski, known for his combative nationalism, his devout Roman Catholicism and deep distrust of both the EU and of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, had been expected to seek a fresh five-year mandate in a presidential election due this autumn.

Under Polish law, parliamentary speaker Bronislaw Komorowski is now acting president and the election will take place by the end of June. Komorowski, 58, is the candidate of Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) and opinion polls have shown him winning the post.

The candidate of the small leftist opposition SLD, Jerzy Szmajdzinski, also died in Saturday’s crash.

In Poland, the government holds most power but the president has a say in foreign policy and can veto laws. Kaczynski irked Tusk’s government by blocking media, health and pension reforms.

LIMITED RISKS

"When all the dust has settled, I don’t think this tragedy will fundamentally change Poland’s situation economically or in any other way," one government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

"There are a lot of uncertainties at the moment. People are very upset, but the risks seem relatively limited. Poland’s democracy should prove its resilience. The constitution states clearly what must happen," he said.

"The presidential election campaign will be difficult, but I expect people will show restraint in these circumstances," the government official said.

Many expect an upsurge of sympathy for Jaroslaw Kaczynski and PiS, a populist right-wing party, in coming weeks but it is far from clear whether this will translate into votes.

PiS has been trailing Tusk’s PO in opinion polls, with about 25 percent support against 50 percent for the ruling party. Poland is due to hold a national election next year.

"The point is that (Lech) Kaczynski was set to be voted out later this year and all the aides who died with him would have been out of power too," said Krzysztof Bobinski, head of the Unia & Polska Foundation, a pro-EU think-tank.

"This disaster could provoke a generational change in PiS as Jaroslaw will be shattered. He was very close to his brother. He has completely dominated PiS but this could now be an opportunity for younger party members to come forward."

SIDELINED

The devastating blow to PiS is not confined to party politics. Among those killed in Saturday’s crash were Kaczynski allies such as central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek and Janusz Kurtyka, head of the National Remembrance Institute (IPN), which supervises Poland’s communist-era archives.

Both Skrzypek and Kurtyka had both been thorns in the Tusk government’s side, on economic issues and on Poland’s communist past respectively.

Internationally, Kaczynski’s death is unlikely to have much impact. After a long delay, Kaczynski had been forced to sign the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which was strongly backed by the Tusk government. The treaty revamps the bloc’s institutions.

Kaczynski, a staunch defender of Ukraine and Georgia against what he called Russia’s "new imperialism," also found himself largely sidelined by the Tusk government as it worked to build better economic and political relations with Moscow.

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Jon Hemming)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B0H520100412

 Poland eyes June 20 vote, post-crash cracks emerge

Gabriela Baczynska and Pawel Sobczak - Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:30am EDT

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s ruling party said on Wednesday that presidential elections were likely to be held on June 20 as protests grew over the choice of a burial site for late president Lech Kaczynski.

Some Poles reacted with fury to plans unveiled on Tuesday by a senior cardinal to bury the late president and his wife Maria at Wawel Cathedral in Krakow, a place normally reserved for national heroes, poets and kings. The uproar exposed the first cracks in the display of national unity that has followed Kaczynski’s death in a plane crash, days before world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, are expected in Poland for the Sunday funeral.

A total of 96 people died in the crash near Smolensk in western Russia on Saturday, including Polish military commanders, top opposition figures and the central bank governor.

Kaczynski and his entourage had been traveling to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers by Soviet secret police in the Katyn forest.

Tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets of Warsaw to welcome his body home at the weekend and people have queued in the rain for hours to get a glimpse of the first couple’s coffins at the presidential palace in the capital.

But the burial plans sparked a sharp reaction. Support for Kaczynski, a polarizing nationalist and euroskeptic, had dwindled to 20 percent before his death.

"HASTY AND EMOTIONAL"

Leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza called the decision "hasty and emotional" in a front-page editorial. Andrzej Wajda, the influential, Oscar-winning Polish director of a film on the Katyn tragedy, wrote to the paper urging the decision on the burial site be reversed.

Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski, the lower house speaker and the presidential candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Platform (PO), held talks on Wednesday with political parties to set a date for the presidential poll.

They agreed to push back a final decision until next week. A leading PO official said the poll would most likely take place on June 20.

Under the rules of the Polish constitution, the election must be held within 60 days of the date announcement and the slight delay gives right-wing Law and Justice (PiS), led by Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw, and the main leftist SLD party extra time to find candidates.

SLD’s presidential candidate also died in the plane crash. A spokesman for Russia’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that 64 victims of the crash had now been formally identified and that the remains of 30 were to be repatriated to Poland.

In addition to Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are due to attend the funeral of Kaczynski and his wife in Krakow, the seat of Polish monarchs up until the end of the 16th century.

About 500 people staged a noisy protest in central Krakow late on Tuesday against the decision to bury the couple at the Wawel Cathedral, waving banners that read "Not Krakow, not Wawel" and "Are you sure he (Kaczynski) is the equal of kings?."

MORE PROTESTS PLANNED

More protests were scheduled for Wednesday evening in Krakow, Warsaw and three other cities. Poles also organized protest campaigns on social media site Facebook.

By Wednesday afternoon, the group "No to the Kaczynskis burial in Wawel" had attracted over 30,000 fans.

"If President Kaczynski had died of natural causes he would never have been buried in Wawel," Jerzy Meysztowicz, an entrepreneur and PO politician in Krakow, told Reuters. "All the president’s faults will soon be in the spotlight and in many cases sorrow will turn to hate."

Allies of the late president defended the decision, which was made after consultations on Tuesday between the church and family members, including Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Wawel is a large complex of buildings on the Vistula river in Krakow that includes a castle, cathedral and fortifications, and traces its roots as a center of political power back to the end of the first millennium.

As well as Polish kings, the Wawel crypt also contains the bodies of legendary military commander Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who fought in the U.S. war of independence, Poland’s wartime leader Wladyslaw Sikorski and national poet Adam Mickiewicz.

(Additional reporting by Wojciech Zurawski in Krakow, Dagmara Leszkowicz in Warsaw; Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63D1YX20100414

 Polish president poll seen on June 13 or 20-document

Wed Apr 14, 2010 5:24am EDT

WARSAW, April 14 (Reuters) - Poland’s presidential election will take place on either June 13 or June 20 following the death of incumbent Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash, a parliamentary document said on Wednesday. "According to the law on choosing the president of Poland, there are now two possible dates to conduct the first round of the election, June 13 or June 20 2010," the document said. Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski is expected later on Wednesday to hold consultations with political parties and to name the date of the election. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Jon Boyle)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE63D0T420100414

 Polish ruling party down 11 pct in poll after crash

Fri Apr 16, 2010 2:23 pm EDT

WARSAW, April 16 (Reuters) - Support for Poland’s ruling Civic Platform (PO) fell 11 points since the end of last month, according to the first opinion poll since President Lech Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash last week.

Kaczynski had been expected to seek a fresh five-year term in a presidential election, originally due this autumn, backed by Poland’s main opposition party, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) led by his twin brother, Jaroslaw.

Surveys before the Saturday crash showed Kaczynski would have lost to PO’s candidate, parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski who is now Poland’s acting president. Polls also showed PiS lagging far behind the pro-business PO.

But the Homo Homini poll, conducted on April 15, showed support for PO fell sharply to 35 percent, while the number of Poles favouring PiS continued flat at 25 percent indicating the smallest margin between the two main rivals in months. Previous polls had put PO at just below 50 percent.

The poll, conducted among 662 people and published by the web page of Poland’s leading Gazeta Wyborcza daily, also showed the number of people undecided on which party to support in a parliamentary election doubled to 16 percent.

Poland will hold the parliamentary election in 2011 and has brought forward the presidential vote, now likely to be on June 20.

Poland’s first lady, Maria Kaczynska, the country’s central bank governor, members of parliament, top commanders of the army as well as other state officials were among the 96 victims of the crash in western Russia.

Poland will bury its late president on Sunday in the southern city of Krakow, although the volcanic ash could prevent many world leaders from attending the ceremony.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE63F20Z

 Support for Polish ruling party falls 3 points

Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:10am EDT

WARSAW, April 20 (Reuters) - Support for Poland’s ruling Civic Platform has fallen 3 points, while the main opposition party Law and Justice gained 1 percentage point, a survey published by daily Gazeta Wyborcza showed on Tuesday.

PBS DGA pollster started the survey on April 9, a day before a plane crash killed President Lech Kaczynski and other state officials, and finished on April 13, during the national mourning, the Gazeta Wyborcza wrote.

The poll gave the ruling Civic Platform 45 percent of support against 32 percent for the Law and Justice. The leftists got 8 percent, while the junior coalition Peasants’ Party 4 percent.

Poland will hold parliamentary election in 2011 and has brought forward the presidential vote, now likely to be on June 20. (Reporting by Dagmara Leszkowicz; Editing by Dominic Evans) http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLDE63J0AA

 Acting Polish president would win election, polls show

Poland’s Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski would win a presidential election expected in June following the death of incumbent Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash, according to new polls.

Published: 7:07PM BST 20 Apr 2010

Mr Komorowski, the presidential candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing centrist Civic Platform (PO), would win 55 per cent in a second round of the election against 32 per cent for Mr Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw, said the TNS OBOP poll, published by the leading tabloid daily Fakt. Another poll, released later on Tuesday by pollster GFK Polonia, shows Komorowski could count on 49 per cent of votes in the first round, compared with Kaczynski’s 26 percent.

Jaroslaw, who leads Poland’s main opposition, right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), has not yet said whether he would run for the presidency in place of his brother, though he is under pressure from his supporters to do so. Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria and 94 others, mostly senior military and political officials, died in a plane crash in Russia on April 10, plunging Poland into mourning. The Kaczynskis were buried in Krakow, southern Poland, on Sunday.

Poland held about 20 more funerals on Tuesday for those killed in the crash, including the head of the presidential administration and opposition politicians. Lech had been expected to seek a fresh five-year mandate on the PiS ticket in an election originally set for the autumn. PiS is expected to name its new candidate shortly.

"We will make our decision on the presidential candidate towards the end of this week. PiS members and supporters want it to be Jaroslaw Kaczynski, but it’s up to him and his closest advisers to decide," PiS official Adam Lipinski told Reuters.

Mr Komorowski, who automatically became acting president on Kaczynski’s death in his capacity as speaker of parliament, is expected to announce on Wednesday that June 20 will be the date of the first round of the presidential election.

If no candidate wins 50 percent plus one of the vote then, a second round will be held two weeks later on July 4.

Komorowski is also awaiting legal advice on whether he needs to name a new governor of the central bank before the election. Governor Slawomir Skrzypek was among those killed in the crash.

Mr Tusk’s junior coalition partner, the Peasants’ Party (PSL), will name its candidate on Wednesday, a party official said.

"Tomorrow, after the announcement of the date of elections, we will hold a party convention and I feel there will be a lot of pressure on the head of the party to take on this mission," said Eugeniusz Grzeszczak, a senior PSL member.

PSL leader Waldemar Pawlak, who is also Poland’s deputy prime minister and economy minister, said before the crash that he did not plan to enter the race for the presidency.

After the announcement of the election date, parties will only have several days to gather 100,000 signatures among Poles to register their candidates — a difficult task for some of Poland’s smaller parties.

In Poland, the government holds most power but the president has a say in foreign policy and can veto legislation.

Mr Komorowski had been expected to trounce Lech in the election. The president’s approval ratings had fallen to about 20 per cent before the crash, though analysts expect sympathy votes to push up support now for the PiS candidate.

A separate poll published on Tuesday showed backing for Tusk’s ruling, pro-euro PO had fallen by three percentage points to 45 percent while Kaczynski’s PiS had risen one percentage point to 32 percent, its highest level in many months.

The PBS DGA pollster started its survey of party support on April 9, the day before the plane crash, and finished it on April 13 during a period of national mourning, said the Gazeta Wyborcza daily that published the survey.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/7612020/Acting-Polish-president-would-win-election-polls-show.html

 Poland president vote on June 20, Komorowski leads

Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:17am EDT

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s acting President Bronislaw Komorowski called for an early presidential election to be held on June 20, his spokesman said on Wednesday, and opinion polls showed he would easily win the vote.

The early election was made necessary by the death of President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in a plane crash in Russia on April 10.

"Today at 5:40 a.m. speaker Komorowski has signed all the documents, hence setting the date of election for June 20," Komorowski’s spokesman, Jerzy Smolinski, told Reuters by telephone.

Komorowski, candidate of the Civic Platform (PO) party, came out well ahead of potential challengers in two opinion polls published by tabloid newspapers. A TNS OBOP poll, conducted on April 19 with a sample of 1,000 people, gave Komorowski 55 percent of support compared to 32 percent for Jaroslaw Kaczynski who leads the main opposition party, the conservative Law and Justice, and is the twin brother of the country’s late president.

The survey, released by the daily Fakt, also showed Komorowski winning handily over other potential candidates of PiS, as well as the small leftist opposition party SLD, whose candidate was among the 96 victims of the plane crash which wiped out much of Poland’s military and political elite.

Separately, the Super Express daily published a Homo Homini poll, also conducted on April 19, that showed Komorowski winning 39.3 percent, with support pegged at 18.2 percent for Kaczynski, who so far has not said whether he would seek the post.

The conservative PiS is expected to name its candidate on Saturday and some party members have said they would back Kaczynski.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s junior coalition partner, the Peasant’s Party, is due to name its candidate on Wednesday.

If none of the candidates gets at least 50 percent of the vote in the first round of the election, a second round will be held on July 4.

The prime minister holds most of the power in Poland, but the president has a say in foreign and security matters and can veto laws. Komorowski, a long-time Tusk ally, is seen cooperating smoothly with the centrist cabinet. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Michael Roddy)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K0N220100421

 Polish elections set for June 20

11:26 21/04/2010

WARSAW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) - Acting Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski has set the date for early presidential elections in Poland for Sunday June 20, the official Polish Parliament website said. The order was signed at 05:40 local time (03:40 GMT). Under the Polish constitution, elections must take place within two months after the election date is announced. A second round may be held on July 4. Komorowski is the presidential candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing centrist Civic Platform party (PO). He was thrust into the role of acting president after the death of President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and a delegation of senior Polish officials in a plane crash near the western Russian city of Smolensk on April 10. The late president and first lady were laid to rest in Krakow on Sunday. A recent survey by TNS OBOP polling center showed that Komorowski stands a good chance of winning the presidential elections. In January 2010, Tusk officially declared he would not participate in the presidential elections. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the late president’s twin brother, who leads Poland’s main opposition, right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), has so far not declared his candidacy in the coming elections, despite Polish media reports that he is supported by many members of his party.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100421/158680465.html

*[Synthetic overview of the last year’s historical controversial between Russia and Poland]

 Moscow court backs closure of WWII Katyn massacre case

20:38 14/10/2008

MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow district military court ruled as lawful on Tuesday the closure of a case concerning the execution of Polish prisoners of war in western Russia’s Katyn forest in 1940, a court spokesman said.

Over 20,000 Polish military officers, police and civilians taken prisoner during the 1939 partitioning of Poland by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were massacred in the Katyn forest, as well as in prisons and other locations, by the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB.

Anna Stavitskaya, a lawyer for the families of those killed, told RIA Novosti she would appeal the military court’s ruling in a higher court.

In 2005, the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office closed the "Katyn Case" saying there was no evidence of genocide against the Polish people, and that those involved in the executions had since died. However, the relatives of the executed officers appealed the decision to close the case. The Soviet Union initially accused Germany of executing the Polish prisoners. However, in 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev officially admitted that Soviet secret police were responsible for the massacre. Russian prosecutors earlier put the number of those killed at 14,500.

http://en.rian.ru/society/20081014/117734800.html

 Moscow court backs refusal to exonerate Katyn officers

15:53 25/11/2008

MOSCOW, November 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow City Court backed on Tuesday a lower court’s refusal to exonerate Polish prisoners of war executed in western Russia’s Katyn forest in 1940, a lawyer said on Tuesday.

Over 20,000 Polish officers, police and civilians taken prisoner during the 1939 partitioning of Poland by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were massacred in the Katyn forest, as well as in prisons and other locations, by the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB.

The Khamovniki District Court rejected a request for their exoneration in late October. Last month the European Court of Human Rights agreed to consider pleas from Yezhi Yanowitz and Antony Rybovsky, a son and a grandson of Polish officers killed in western Russia’s Katyn forest in 1940.

In 2005, the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office closed the Katyn case, saying those involved in the executions had since died. However, the relatives of the executed officers appealed the decision to close the case.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20081125/118528120.html

 Russian Supreme Court upholds closure of Katyn massacre case

15:55 29/01/2009

MOSCOW, January 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia’s Supreme Court upheld on Thursday the closure of the investigation into the so-called Katyn case, in which several thousand Polish POWs were executed in western Russia’s Katyn forest in 1940.

The court thereby turned down an appeal by relatives of the victims.

Over 20,000 Polish officers, police and civilians taken prisoner during the 1939 partitioning of Poland by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were massacred in the Katyn forest, as well as in prisons and other locations, by the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB.

The judge said the 1926 Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic should be applied to the crime committed in 1940. Under this code, prosecution cannot be administered if more than ten years have passed since the crime.

In his ruling, the judge also noted that the case was closed in September 2004 because any possible indictees were long dead.

Another reason given for not reviewing the case was that only 22 POWs have been identified from the 1,803 sets of remains discovered, and no kinship to the suitors has been established. Anna Stavitskaya, who represents relatives of the victims, said they would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Strasbourg-based court last year received pleas from two Poles demanding that Russia recognize those killed in the Katyn massacre as war crime victims, and grant access to documents on the massacre.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090129/119870665.html

 Russia accuses Poland of starting Second World War

By Adrian Blomfield in St Petersburg / Published: 4:58PM BST 04 Jun 2009

The Russian defence ministry posted a potentially inflammatory essay on its website which claimed Poland resisted Germany’s ultimatums in 1939 only because it "wanted to obtain the status of a great power".

The lengthy diatribe, which is unlikely to be welcomed in Warsaw, also lashed out at Britain and France for giving the Poles "delusions of grandeur" by promising to intercede if the Nazis invaded.

"Anyone who has been minded to study the history of the Second World War knows it started because of Poland’s refusal to meet Germany’s requests," the statement read. "The German demands were very modest. You could hardly call them unfounded."

Appearing to take Germany’s demands at face value, the defence ministry insisted that the Nazis were interested only in building transport links across the Polish Corridor to East Prussia and assuming control of Gdansk, which had been designated as a free city at the time.

Western historians largely recognise that Poland would have lost its independence had it acceded to the demands, pointing to Hitler’s policies of Lebensbraum and the creation of a Greater Germany as evidence. Germany invaded Poland on Sept 1, 1939, prompting the British Empire and France to declare war over the next two days. Germany and the Soviet Union then carved up Poland under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The statement, written by Col Sergei Kovalev, a senior researcher at the defence ministry, appears to be part of a new Kremlin campaign to push its view of Soviet era history.

Poland’s foreign ministry said it would summon Russia’s ambassador to Warsaw to demand an explanation, as the allegations showed signs of triggering a major row between the two countries.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, last month created a commission to identify foreign "revisionists" who disparage the country’s prestige and "falsify" its history.

Col Kovalev’s paper, which appears under a section titled History: Lies and Falsifications, claims that British support for Warsaw caused Poland to "lose all sense of reality."

It also attacked the Western press for suggesting that the Soviet Union carried some blame for the War by its alliance with Hitler under the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which carved up Europe into two spheres of influence to be headed by Hitler and Stalin.

"No representative of a Western democracy has the right to discuss any treaty between the Soviet Union and Germany," given that Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement of 1938 giving Germany control of the Sudetenland.

As for the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Col Kovalev wrote, it was merely a time-buying mechanism after Britain refused to sign a mutual defence treaty with the Soviet Union.

Under the pact the Soviet Union took control of two-thirds of Poland as well as the Baltic states, but only, he wrote, in order to create a buffer zone that would allow Moscow to marshal its defences ahead of an inevitable war with the Third Reich.

Under planned legislation, backed by Mr Medvedev, any Russian or foreigner who claims that the Soviet Union occupied Poland or the Baltic States could face up to five years in prison.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/5445161/Russia-accuses-Poland-of-starting-Second-World-War.html

 Russia set to release secret files on Poland’s policies in WWII

00:49 01/09/2009

MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) will make public a number of documents revealing the secrets of Polish internal and foreign policies in 1935-1945, an SVR spokesman said on Tuesday.

The compilation of declassified documents, dubbed ’Secrets of Polish policy. 1935-1945,’ is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, which officially started with the Nazi Germany attack on Poland on September 1, 1939.

"The compilation from the SVR archives includes analytical reviews of Poland’s internal and foreign policies, political correspondence, reports by military attaches, diplomats and other documents that reveal Polish secret plans on the eve of the war," Sergei Ivanov said.

According to the official, the documents will help historians, political figures and general public to find answers to questions like: what prevented political leaders of the time to form an anti-Nazi coalition before the start of the war and why the collective security in Europe did not work?

"The answers to these questions are very important today, when many politicians and leaders of some countries attempt to review the history and the outcome of the Second World War and impose the new interpretation on younger generations," Ivanov said.

Moscow has resisted attempts to challenge the Soviet Union’s role in the war, which claimed the lives of 27 million Soviet nationals, according to official figures. Ex-Soviet states, including Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic countries, view Stalin’s Soviet Union as an aggressor.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has arrived on Tuesday in Poland to attend international events in Gdansk to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. He will also meet with his counterparts from Poland, Ukraine, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Finland, Slovenia and Croatia.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090901/155979804.html

 New labels for Katyn massacre hamper Russo-Polish relations

Published 23 September, 2009, 13:54 / Edited 13 April, 2010, 23:01

The Polish parliament has adopted, without a vote or debate, a resolution that blames Russia for genocide, an allegation Moscow denies. Russia says the move will strain already tense bilateral relations.

The resolution defines the actions of the USSR towards Poland during the outbreak of World War Two as having traits of genocide.

“On September 17, 1939, without declaring war, Soviet army took aggressive action against Poland, violating its Sovereignty and international law,” the resolution said, adding that “the organization of Soviet crimes and their scale have features of genocide”.

Though the Soviet army infiltrated only the territories of Western Belarus and Ukraine that Poland had previously invaded during the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921, the resolution was adopted without voting.

However, the most hotly-disputed issue, and a deep thorn in relations between Poland and Russia, was in the second part of the document, referring to the mass murder of more than 20,000 Polish officers, intellectuals, policemen and prisoners of war by Soviet soldiers in Katyn in 1940.

Relatives of those massacred were present at the parliamentary session, and members of parliament hailed them by standing.

20,000 deaths between two countries

Maria Bunda-Fournier was only seven when she found out her father, Boris, a major in the Polish military, had been executed in what has become known as the Katyn massacre. The tragedy has been something she’s struggled to come to terms with her whole life.

“Finding the person responsible doesn’t matter any more as most are now dead – but we want the problem reconciled, we want to hear apologies, because if something is left unsolved you are always hurting inside,” Bunda-Fournier says.

At first, blame was placed on Nazi troops, but in 1990, the then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin acknowledged Soviet responsibility and apologized.

A Russian investigation classified the massacres as a war crime, and many resolutions adopted by the Polish parliament never used the word “genocide”. But now Poles seem keen to take it further.

However, some Polish officials, like Member of Parliament Tadeusz Iwinski, were against adopting the document, saying they want to overcome the past for the future’s sake.

“Of course we have a painful history. For instance, in the 17th Century, Poles twice occupied the Kremlin, and we had Karyn. But we had positive elements too: 600 000 Russian soldiers lie in graves on our soil. Poland has three major neighbors – without hierarchy – Germany, Russia and Ukraine. With all of them, we need finally to have reconciliation,” Iwinski says.

Historians say the move is an exaggeration of the facts.

“The killing of Polish prisoners of war is a crime against humanity, but definitely not genocide. In my view, when we speak about genocide we mean the elimination of a nation or creating the conditions for this,” historian Natalya Lebedeva says.

Both countries have called for more cooperation and closer ties, but the new resolution is only likely to create more tension. The main point of contention revolves around responsibility.

On his visit to Poland to mark the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the Soviet Union made mistakes. However, he called on history not to be rewritten. What Russia firmly opposes are notions of genocide, efforts it sees to equate Stalinism with Nazism:

“I can say that the attempts to draw analogies, like the one provided in the resolution, are political. We can only regret this. Such presentation of this problem don’t encourage the development of Russian-Polish bilateral relations,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrey Nesterenko has said. Relations which have been sour for many years.

And while the US abandonment of the planned missile defense system has got rid of one tense point, the dispute over the murder of more than 20 000 Poles is harder to reconcile.

http://rt.com/Politics/2009-09-23/new-labels-katyn-massacre.html

 Polish parliament votes to condemn 1939 Soviet ’invasion’

12:00 23/09/2009

WARSAW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - The lower house of Poland’s parliament adopted on Wednesday a resolution condemning the "aggression" of Soviet troops in Eastern Poland in September 1939.

The document was approved during negotiations with leaders from all parliamentary parties and Sejm Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski last week.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20090923/156223454.html

 Moscow says Polish resolution on Soviet ’aggression’ harms ties

13:33 24/09/2009

MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) – Russia protested on Thursday a decision by the Polish parliament to condemn the Soviet "invasion" of Poland in 1939.

The lower house of Poland’s parliament adopted on Wednesday a resolution condemning the entry of Soviet troops into Eastern Poland in September 1939 as "an act of aggression."

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the resolution "seriously harms the development of normal bilateral relations."

"We can only regret that Poland’s supreme legislature, touching upon quite a sensitive issue concerning the sentiments of both Polish and Russian citizens, as well as Ukrainians and Belarusians, does so with a biased and politicized approach," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Polish resolution refers to Soviet troops’ entry into western parts of what are now Ukraine and Belarus, and at the time had been under Polish control since the end of the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War.

The Soviet Union said the deployment of troops was meant to protect Ukrainians and Belarusians, as the Polish government had fled the country in the face of the German attack and could no longer guarantee the security of its own citizens.

Last week, Russia’s NATO envoy, Dmitry Rogozin, accused the Polish leadership of Russophobic sentiments in its views on the outbreak of the Second World War.

"The Polish version is a lie and the attitude of the Polish leadership is provocative," he said.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090924/156238284.html