Putin invites Tusk to Katyn commemoration

7th February 2010

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Poland’s fraught and emotional relations with Russia may have taken an unexpected turn for the better after Moscow invited the Polish prime minister to attend ceremonies marking the 70th-anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.

In April, both Donald Tusk and his Russian peer, Vladimir Putin, will attend a memorial service for the estimated 20,000 Poles murdered on the orders of Stalin in the spring of 1940.

“Prime Minister (Putin) invited him to jointly visit Katyn," Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, while Mr Tusk’s office provided more detail.

“Prime Minister Putin underlined that he is aware of how important the Katyn issue is for Poles. Prime Minister Putin said: 'I believe that our joint appearance at this ceremony will have a very big symbolic meaning'.", reported a spokesman for Mr Tusk.

The invitation could help ease tensions between the countries over the massacre that have for long cast a shadow over bi-lateral relations.

Warsaw has frequently accused Moscow of obstructing attempts by Poland to investigate the slaughter. In particular Poland has voiced great frustration over its failure to get complete access to files on Katyn in the Kremlin’s archives.

For many Poles Moscow’s alleged foot-dragging over the massacre has fuelled the belief that despite admissions of guilt from Russia’s leaders the Kremlin has shown no real contrition over an event that is still a source of deep and painful emotion in Poland.

This has helped colour recent clashes between Moscow and Warsaw over Poland’s decision to locate a US Patriot missile battery near the Russian border, and a heated argument 18 months ago over the Polish government’s now reversed agreement to host components of a controversial American anti-missile shield.

But news of the Mr Putin’s invitations to the Poles was not welcomed by all.

Memorial, a Russian NGO that investigates Russia’s totalitarian past, and monitors human and civil rights in the country, has criticised the move. In particular it has attacked the Kremlin’s decision to downplay the event diplomatically by limiting the ceremony to prime ministers as opposed to presidents.

This, Memorial alleges, comes as evidence as a possible attempt to hoodwink the Poles and of the Kremlin’s continued refusal to reconcile itself with crimes committed by the Soviet Union against Poland.   

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