Polish leader, 96 others dead in Russia jet crash

The crash of an aging Russian airliner ravaged the top levels of Poland's military, political and church elite Saturday, killing the Polish president and dozens of other dignitaries as they traveled to a ceremony commemorating a slaughter that has divided the two nations for seven decades.

Poles wept before their televisions, lowered flags to half-staff and taped black ribbons in their windows after hearing that President Lech Kaczynski and the upper echelons of the establishment lay dead in woods a short drive from the site of the Katyn forest massacre, where 22,000 Polish officers were killed by Soviet secret police in one of Poland's greatest national traumas.

Thousands of people, many in tears, placed candles and flowers at the presidential palace in central Warsaw. Many called the crash Poland's worst disaster since World War II.

Twenty monks rang the Zygmunt bell at Krakow's Wawel Cathedral — the burial spot of Polish kings — a tolling reserved for times of profound importance or grief.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100411/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_plane_crash

Poland to announce early presidential election in 2 weeks

Bronislaw Komorowski, the speaker of the Polish parliament, said he would announce the date for the early presidential election in two weeks after consultations with all political parties.

In line with the Polish constitution, Komorowski has assumed the presidential duties following the tragic death of President Lech Kaczynski in plane crash in west Russia on Saturday morning.

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/world/20100411/158518645.html

Anna Walentynowicz, whose sacking led to the rise of Solidarity

Anna Walentynowicz who died, aged 80, in the Smolensk plane disaster was the woman who began one of Poland's most significant postwar events – the Gdansk shipyard strike in 1980 that led to the formation of the Solidarity trade union and, ultimately, the collapse of communism.

A Polish free trade unionist it was her sacking in August 1990 that provoked the strike at the Lenin shipyard in which more than a million workers would eventually be involved. She went on to play herself in film-maker Andrzej Wajda's seminal depiction of the strike and the era in which it took place, Man of Iron.

Read more: http://www.todayonline.com/BreakingNews/EDC100411-0000028/Polands-new-acting-president,-Bronislaw-Komorowski,-says-early-elections-will-be-held

President Kaczynski, Wife and Polish Delegation Killed in Plane Crash

The President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, accompanied by his wife Maria and many officials of the Polish government, were killed in a plane crash while attempting to land in Smolensk, Russia today. The plane brushed tree tops in bad foggy weather, before crashing and bursting into flames.

There were no survivors among the 132 persons on board. The presidential plane departed from Warsaw and came down at 11:00 am (7:00 am GMT) about a mile (1.5km) from the airport and 225 km from Moscow. The Polish delegation was traveling to Smolensk for a Katyn commemoration ceremony.

The pilot was told Smolensk's Severny airport was closed because of thick fog, according to the news agency Interfax. He was told by air traffic controllers to divert to another landing site and given a choice of landing instead in either Moscow or Minsk, the capital of Belarus. But the pilot decided to continue with the original flight plan and land at Smolensk.

He made three unsuccessful attempts to land before the crash. On the fourth try, the plane fell apart in the tree tops, Interfax said, citing officials at Smolensk's interior ministry. It seems rather incredible that the pilot chose to make so many unsuccessful attempts.

Russia's foreign ministry confirmed the cause of the air catastrophe was bad weather. "According to provisional information the crash happened because the plane failed to land at the military airport near Smolensk in conditions of severe fog.”

Read more: http://english.pravda.ru/world/ussr/10-04-2010/112962-president_kaczynski_wife_polish-0

Polish president dies in plane crash

More: http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Polish-president-dies-plane-crash/ss/events/wl/041010kaczynski/im:/100410/photos_wl_afp/eb1c5d8d68423d9091b80c43c269895c/

Crash focusses attention on Tupolev-154

The death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash is likely to raise questions about the 20-year-old Tupolev-154 he was travelling in.

The BBC's Adam Easton reports from Warsaw that there had been calls for Polish leaders to upgrade their planes.

And in late 2008 Mr Kaczynski had suffered a couple of scares. Problems with the aircraft's steering mechanism delayed his departure from Mongolia, forcing him to take a charter flight to Tokyo, and a week later the plane was caught up in turbulence flying to Seoul.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8612915.stm

Skrzypek Death to Test Polish Central Bank

Following the sudden death of Polish central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek in a plane crash Saturday, his first deputy, Piotr Wiesiolek, will become interim chief, according to Poland's central-bank law.

Analysts said that the governor's death is unlikely to change the path of monetary policy but that the appointment of Mr. Skrzypek's permanent successor will be a test of whether Poland's ruling Civic Platform party will be tempted to impinge on the central ...

Read more ($): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304170204575175653844316766.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Poland's top brass dead in Russi crash

Poland's top military commanders perished with the NATO member's President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash Saturday in Russia, according to an official passenger list published by the government.

A scan of a list of 88 passengers aboard the Polish government Tupolev Tu-154 jet published Saturday on a government website showed the names of chief of staff General Franciszek Gagor and Major General Bronislaw, head of operational forces.

General Tadeusz Buk, head of land forces, Andrzej Blasik, air force commander and special forces chief Wojciech Potasinki as well as navy vice-admiral Andrzej Karweta were also on the list.

"The leadership of the general staff of the Polish army is meeting today. Faced with this crisis, it will take the appropriate decisions," general staff spokesman Dariusz Niedzielski said Saturday, quoted by the Polish PAP news agency.

Read more: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=24&art_id=nw20100410142305208C228288

President Kaczyński is killed in a plane crash: Poland's tragedies continue

Poland has suffered more than is any country’s right. Its story is one of repeated occupations, partitions and tyrannies. Seventy years ago, almost to the day, 21,768 Polish army officers, intellectuals and senior civil servants were murdered by the Soviet NKVD in the forest near Katyn: an attempt by Stalin to decapitate Poland by liquidating its elite. For years, the crime went unacknowledged: Western governments, reluctant to face up to the reality of the regime to which they had allied themselves, went along with the pretence that the massacre had been carried out by the Nazis.

This morning, a few miles from Katyn, another decapitation occurred. A Russian plane crashed near Smolensk, carrying the President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, his wife Maria, and dozens of senior Polish officials. They were on their way to a memorial ceremony at the site of the Katyn atrocity, for which Russia finally admitted responsibility in 1990.

Read more: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100033729/president-kaczynski-is-killed-in-a-plane-crash-polands-tragedies-continue/

Polish President Lech Kaczynski dies in plane crash

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and scores of others have been killed in a plane crash in Russia.

Polish and Russian officials said no-one had survived after the plane apparently hit trees as it approached Smolensk's airport in thick fog.

Poland's army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians were among more than 80 passengers.

They were flying in from Warsaw to mark 70 years since the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces.

The BBC's Adam Easton, in Warsaw, says the crash is a catastrophe for the Polish people.

He says Prime Minister Donald Tusk was reportedly in tears when he was told.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8612825.stm

Polish president Lech Kaczynski killed in plane crash

The Polish president and his wife were killed in a plane crash this morning, according to Russian officials.

President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria were on board a flight which crashed at 10.56 Moscow time (0656 GMT) near Smolensk airport.

Russian media is reporting that all 132 passengers were killed.

The Kaczynski’s were travelling with several senior government figures on a trip to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn forest massacre, in which thousands of Poles were executed by Soviet secret police.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7094096.ece

PM welcomes polish Prime Minister Tusk

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland, will lead a delegation of government representatives on a working visit to Canada April 14 to 15. This is the Polish Prime Minister’s first visit to Canada.

“It is an honour to welcome Prime Minister Tusk to Canada and to return the warm hospitality I received on the occasion of my visit to Poland in 2008,” said Prime Minister Harper. “This visit clearly demonstrates the strong and enduring friendship between Canada and Poland, and I look forward to strengthening this relationship next week.”

Read more: http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?category=1&id=3271

Norway, Poland seek curbs on tactical nuclear arms

Norway and Poland called on Friday for new talks on limiting the number of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, seeking to build on the momentum from a U.S.-Russian agreement reducing longer-range strategic nuclear arms.

Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed on Thursday a treaty to reduce their strategic nuclear arsenals, vowed further cuts and discussed the goal of eventually eliminating nuclear weapons altogether.

NATO members Norway and Poland applauded the revival of nuclear disarmament by the two powers, which jointly hold 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, and called for talks on limiting the shorter range tactical nuclear arms.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/09/AR2010040903423.html

Poland Pulls Trigger to Weaken Zloty

In one of those rare moments of unity, the National Bank of Poland and the Polish government agreed on the need to weaken the Polish zloty, which over recent weeks has rebounded close to its precrisis strength. The currency’s strength is now seen a possible threat to economic recovery. After several verbal interventions over the past few days, the central bank intervened with real money Friday, for the first time in more than a decade.

The bank followed through on its Thursday warnings that it is “technologically and psychologically” prepared to enter the currency market to prevent “excessive strengthening of the zloty.” Government officials also said earlier this week that the “strong zloty” is damaging growth and, after Friday’s intervention, said they fully back the central bank’s move.

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/new-europe/2010/04/09/polish-central-bank-pulls-trigger-to-weaken-zloty/

Swedish ´Auschwitz thief´ extradited to Poland

Anders Högström has been jailed in Stockholm all since he was arrested in mid-February after a request from the Polish police. Today he will be extradited to the Polish police authorities in Krakow. They are interested in hearing his version about the theft of the Auschwitz sign "Arbeit macht frei"

The stealing of teh Auschwitz sign took place in December. Only after a couple of days, five Polish men were arrested outside the Polish city Torun and the sign was found in the forest. The five men pointed out Högström as the mastermind behind the theft.

Anders Högström risks a harsh sentence since the Auschwitz sign is seen as a part of the Polish national heritage.

Read more: http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=5123

'Reconciliation' in Katyn May Not Be Enough

For the first time, Russian and Polish leaders on Wednesday commemorated the Katyn massacre together on the 70th anniversary of the tragic event. Despite optimism for improved relations between the two countries, however, many German commentators are not entirely impressed by Russia's effort to confront its own difficult past.

Relations between Warsaw and Moscow have been consistently patchy, but more often downright sour in the two decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain. But events on Wednesday brought a spring thaw that could bring positive developments for ties between the two countries in the years to come. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin broke with the past and invited Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to a join him for a joint memorial ceremony in the Russian town of Katyn, where Soviet soldiers massacred up to 22,000 Polish officers, officials, priests and intellectuals during World War II.

Read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,687934,00.html

Poland and Russia reconcile in Katyn

In a ground-breaking move Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk for the first time have jointly commemorated the victims of the Katyn massacre 70 years ago. The event signals a reconciliation from which other countries may learn, writes the European press.

Read more: http://baltic-review.com/2010/04/08/poland-and-russia-reconcile-in-katyn/

Is Poland Too Cocky About Its Economy?

The Eastern European giant's relative success during the global economic crisis may have bred a dangerous complacency about its real fiscal prospects.

Perhaps being named European finance minister of the year has gone to Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski's head. After Poland's stellar but slightly lucky economic performance in 2009, some economists say Rostowski is dangerously downplaying risks that could weigh on the country's prosperity, undermining the credibility of his government's fiscal-deficit reduction efforts and narrowing Poland's path to the eurozone.

"The deficit reduction program is very optimistic, as it's based on GDP growth of 3 to 4%," Millennium Bank (BMSAF) chief economist Grzegorz Maliszewski said. "Implementing this scenario is risky. Until 2012, everything will depend on GDP growth."

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2010/gb2010048_192248.htm

Russia and Poland agree on long-term gas supplies

Russia and Poland have agreed on long-term gas supplies to Poland and are due to sign all formalizing documents shortly, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.

"We have almost agreed on long-term supplies of Russian natural gas to Poland; all formalizing documents are due to be signed shortly," Putin said at a press conference on results of talks with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk.

Warsaw has long been raising the issue of increasing gas supplies from Russia.

Russian energy giant Gazprom and Polish gas monopoly, PGNiG, also with EuRoPol GAZ signed agreements on January 27 extending gas shipments until 2045. One of the agreements stipulates increasing gas supplies from 8 to 11 billion cubic meters per year and extending the current agreement by 15 years, through 2037.

However, the changes will come into force only when new intergovernmental protocols are signed.

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/world/20100408/158478877.html

The Katyn massacre: A crime without punishment

POLAND REMEMBERS

Stalin's shame

Seventy years after the Katyn massacre, Russia and Poland have made a substantial effort to redress their enmity over a war crime committed during the opening stages of the Second World War. But there's still much left to discuss, historians say.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, met in Russia on Wednesday to jointly commemorate the more than 20,000 Polish officers, police and others who were murdered by the Soviet secret police and buried in mass graves in the Katyn forest near Smolensk in 1940.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/07/f-katyn-massacre-interview.html#ixzz0kVeL56RJ

Meeting of Russian, Polish leaders could shed light on 1940 massacre

A historic meeting scheduled for Wednesday between top leaders of Russia and Poland is expected to provide new details about Russia's mass execution of 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest in 1940 and may open the way toward improved relations between the two countries.

The mass slaying of the Polish prisoners of war by the Soviet secret police is one of the darker and less known chapters of World War II, said Kyle Parker, a Russian expert and policy adviser to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an independent U.S. agency that helps formulate American policy for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk -- the Russian and Polish prime ministers -- will meet at the execution site in Smolensk, Russia, to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre, which Russia blamed on Germany until 1990.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/06/AR2010040604925.html

Russian, Polish Prime Ministers to remember political repression victims

The Prime Ministers of Russia and Poland Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk are due to attend events to commemorate the victims of the political repressions of the 1930s at the Katyn Memorial in the Smolensk region, in the west of Russia. The memorial was erected at the site of mass-scale executions, where Polish Army servicemen, among others, were gunned down back in 1940.

Read more:http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/07/6087356.html

Putin Commemorates WWII Massacre

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 Russiaat 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.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/europe/08putin.html

Surgery in Poland stunts man's MS symptoms

For years, the Ottawa man's multiple sclerosis had been slowly reducing the number of fingers he could type with, but, after flying to Poland for breakthrough surgery not yet offered in Canada, some symptoms are reversing themselves.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Surgery+Poland+stunts+symptoms/2771091/story.html

Remembering Katyn, 70 years later

The Polish prime minister will attend Wednesday's ceremony in Russia marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of Poles by Soviet forces. It is an unprecedented step, and one which could herald a new era in strained relations between Poland and Russia, says the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw.

The families of the victims of the Katyn massacre have endured decades of lies, discrimination and frustration.

For 50 years, the Soviet Union blamed the murder of more than 20,000 Polish officers on the Nazis, who uncovered one of the mass graves in the forest of Katyn, near the city of Smolensk, in 1943.

It was only in 1990 that Mikhail Gorbachev admitted Soviet responsibility.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8606126.stm

Is Russia finally ditching its revisionist history on Katyn?

In this era of commerce and trade, it often happens that countries that might once have gone to war play out their antagonisms through other means. The immigration debate plays this role in Mexican American relations. For a time, the trade dispute over soft wood lumber (yes, really) fulfilled this function in Canadian American relations: At stake were different attitudes toward the role of government in industry, Canada's sensitivity to American economic power and many other issues, though you wouldn't know it if you weren't paying attention.

In Central Europe, the outstanding example of this phenomenon is the discussion of the Katyn massacre, the memory of which continues to shape the relationship between Poland and Russia. At issue is an event that took place 70 years ago: the Soviet Union's murder of some 20,000 Polish officers in the spring of 1940. The officers had been captured by the Red Army, which invaded eastern Poland in 1939 just after Nazi Germany invaded from the West. Soviet secret police murdered them on the direct order of Joseph Stalin. Later, Stalin switched sides, joining the Allies against Hitler, and he blamed the Germans for the officers' murder. That lie remained part of official Soviet and Polish communist history until communism collapsed and the Soviet Union fell apart. In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet communist leader, took responsibility for the murders. In 1991, the first Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, published the archival documentation.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/05/AR2010040503550.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Polish politician welcomes Putin's visit to Katyn

The upcoming visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Katyn, where thousands of Polish POWs were massacred by Soviet forces in WWII, demonstrates a "new trend in Russia's approach to history," a Polish politician said on Monday.

Putin will visit the western Russian location on April 7 to take part in a memorial service marking the Katyn massacre. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is also expected to attend the ceremony, while Polish President Lech Kaczynski is to travel to Katyn on April 10.

"The very fact that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will visit Katyn and honor the memory of the victims of the Katyn tragedy is an event of huge importance," Andrzej Przewoznik, who heads Poland's council for the protection of the memory of World War Two victims and veterans, said.

Over 20,000 Polish officers, police and civilians taken prisoner during the 1939 partitioning of Poland by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were killed in the Katyn forest in 1940, as well as in prisons and other locations, by the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB.

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100405/158446299.html

Poland could become major gas supplier

Oisin Fanning, chairman of British firm San Leon Energy, said, "Poland is going to emerge as a significant gas producer and there is a lot of interest."

Interest as been spurred by "some of the best fiscal terms in the world," said Aurelian Oil and Gas Chief Executive Officer Rowen Bainbridge.

The government is asking for only 23 percent of the take, which "is creating a very large commercial incentive to develop these deposits," he said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2010/04/05/Poland-could-become-major-gas-supplier/UPI-12281270495487/

Russia, Poland to come clean on shared past

Russia and Poland can look forward to more mutual frankness and openness after the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accepted an invitation from his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin to visit commemorations in Katyn near Smolensk, where Stalin’s secret police shot dead some 20 thousand captured Polish officers 70 years ago this summer.

Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/05/6018972.html

Wajda’s “Katyn” shown on Russian TV before premiers’ meeting

A film by prominent Polish director Andrzej Wajda about the massacre of Polish officers by Soviet soldiers in Katyn in 1940 premiered on the Russian TV channel Kultura on April 2.

The appearance of the film in Russia is seen as a positive sign in Russian-Polish relations as the two countries are still arguing about the role the Soviet Union played before the start of WWII. Over 20,000 Polish prisoners, mainly officers, were executed after the partitioning of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939.

The fact that the massacre was staged by the NKVD police force in a forest near Smolensk in Western Russia was recognized by the Soviet Union in 1990. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk will take part in the memorial service marking the 70th anniversary since the tragedy on April 7. Polish President Lech Kaczynski is expected to attend a memorial service on April 10.

Read more: http://rt.com/Politics/2010-04-05/roar-wajdas-katyn-shown.html

Dash for Poland’s gas could end Russian stranglehold

American technology to produce shale gas is unleashing a scramble for drilling rights in Poland, where experts believe vast reserves of unconventional gas exist that could help to weaken Russia’s grip on Europe’s energy supplies.
“There is a landgrab under way,” said Oisin Fanning, the executive chairman of San Leon Energy, a British company that has secured three licence areas in the region with Talisman. “Poland is going to emerge as a significant gas producer and there is a lot of interest. All of the majors are coming in and Gazprom is looking at this with some alarm.” He said that Talisman planned to spend $140 million (£90 million) on its Polish drilling programme, which will start next year.

Read more: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7087585.ece

John Paul ‘ignored abuse of 2,000 boys’

As the faithful marked the anniversary of John Paul’s death on Good Friday, however, he was being drawn into the scandal over child abuse in the Catholic church that has confronted his successor, Benedict XVI, with the worst crisis of his reign.

Allegations that the late pontiff blocked an inquiry into a paedophile cardinal, promoted senior church figures despite accusations that they had molested boys and covered up innumerable cases of abuse during his 26-year papacy have cast a cloud over his path to sainthood.

The most serious claims related to Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, an Austrian friend of John Paul’s who abused an estimated 2,000 boys over decades but never faced any sanction from Rome.

Read more:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7086738.ece