Posted on 04/07/2010 2:08:33 PM PDT by kronos77
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday became the first Russian or Soviet leader to join Polish officials in commemorating the anniversary of the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II.
Mr. Putin cast the executions as one tragedy out of many wrought by what he called the Soviet Union’s “totalitarian regime.”
“We bow our heads to those who bravely met death here,” Mr. Putin said at a site in the Katyn forest close to the Russian city of Smolensk, where 70 years ago members of the Soviet secret police executed more than 20,000 Polish officers captured after the Soviet Army invaded Poland in 1939.
“In this ground lay Soviet citizens, burnt in the fire of the Stalinist repression of the 1930s; Polish officers, shot on secret orders; soldiers of the Red Army, executed by the Nazis.”
The circumstances surrounding the massacre have long been a major source of tension between Poland and Russia, and Wednesday’s tribute, held jointly with Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, appears to be the latest step in an effort by both countries to patch up relations.
...
Last week, a government-owned television channel showed “Katyn,” an Oscar-nominated film by the Polish director, Andrzej Wajda, which portrays the massacre and the Soviet cover-up. The film had previously been screened only a few times in Russia.
Wednesday’s commemoration, held amid the birch and pine trees of the Katyn forest, was pregnant with symbolism and not a little irony. Russian state television showed Mr. Putin, a former K.G.B. officer, standing beside his Polish colleague as Russian Orthodox priests intoned prayers for the dead. Russian and Polish soldiers laid wreaths at the base of a towering red Orthodox cross.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He’s trying to win over the hearts and mind of dopes all over the world. Meanwhile, he seeking to reform the Soviet Union. He’s also building up Iran, Chavez, the Castro brothers, and various other Marxist dictatorships.
We have got so many stupid friggin people on our side, I don’t know how we will survive.
Ping
Russia is becoming Russia again. She is not our friend, but then again she doesn't have to be our enemy.
all the polish brass went to see Putin over this and they were killed?
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