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04-07-2010, 12:16 PM
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: April 7, 2010
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin joined his Polish counterpart on Wednesday in the first joint commemoration marking the anniversary of the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II.
Mr. Putin met with Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, in Russia at a site in the Katyn forest close to the city of Smolensk, where 70 years ago members of the Soviet secret police executed over 20,000 Polish officers captured after the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland in 1939.
The circumstances surrounding the massacre have long been a major source of tension between Poland and Russia, and Wednesday’s tribute appears to be the latest step in an effort by both countries to patch up relations. “The anniversary of the crimes at Katyn are very important for the Polish people,” said Robert Smigielski, an analyst with the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw. “You can say that it is the most problematic issue in relations between the Poles and the Russians.”
Read the rest at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/europe/08putin.html?ref=world
Published: April 7, 2010
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin joined his Polish counterpart on Wednesday in the first joint commemoration marking the anniversary of the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II.
Mr. Putin met with Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, in Russia at a site in the Katyn forest close to the city of Smolensk, where 70 years ago members of the Soviet secret police executed over 20,000 Polish officers captured after the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland in 1939.
The circumstances surrounding the massacre have long been a major source of tension between Poland and Russia, and Wednesday’s tribute appears to be the latest step in an effort by both countries to patch up relations. “The anniversary of the crimes at Katyn are very important for the Polish people,” said Robert Smigielski, an analyst with the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw. “You can say that it is the most problematic issue in relations between the Poles and the Russians.”
Read the rest at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/europe/08putin.html?ref=world