| Activists of the Katyn Committee held a picket at the Russian embassy in Warsaw, protesting Russia’s refusal to recognize the shooting of Polish officers as an act of genocide. In 1940, about 15 thousand Polish officers interned after September 17, 1939, when the USSR invaded Poland, were killed in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, Tver and Kharkov. At the end of last week, Russia's chief military prosecutor, Alexander Savenkov, announced the completion of the investigation into the Katyn case. According to him, it consists of 183 volumes, of which 116 contain state secrets and therefore will remain classified as “secret”. The remaining 67 volumes, according to the prosecutor, “are open for inspection, and the Polish side can familiarize themselves with them.”
Poland did not expect such a turn of events. The Institute of National Remembrance (INR), conducting its investigation, agreed with the Russian Military Prosecutor's Office that all documents would be provided to it. But Warsaw was especially offended by Mr. Savenkov’s words that the version of the genocide of the Polish people had not been confirmed.
The IPP's investigation aims to achieve recognition of the events in Katyn as genocide and a war crime, as well as to establish the number of those executed and the total number of perpetrators. At the same time, Polish prosecutors understand that without cooperation with their Russian colleagues, this cart cannot be moved. The Katyn case has been under investigation for 14 years, and so far not a single name has been named, not a single charge has been brought. The INP believes that the classified volumes contain well-known names of the criminals involved in this case and the shadow of accusation may fall on their relatives.
The Katyn issue, which never loses its relevance for the Poles, introduced additional tension into relations between Moscow and Warsaw, which were already strained. The Polish Foreign Ministry called the destruction of Aslan Maskhadov “not just a crime, but also a great political stupidity and a big mistake.”
After a telephone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Polish counterpart Adam Rotfeld, some Russian media hastened to report that the Polish Foreign Minister apologized to Russia. But the Polish official version states that “Adam Rotfeld thanked for the explanations received and presented the motives that guide the Polish side in assessing the situation in Chechnya.”
Obviously, the presented motives did not satisfy the special representative of the Russian President for the development of relations with the European Union, Sergei Yastrzhembsky. He reproached the Polish political elite for making statements without understanding the matter. This statement, in turn, outraged the Polish Foreign Ministry. Deputy Minister Andrzej Zalucki expressed surprise at Mr. Yastrzhembski's escalated reaction, since, in his opinion, the incident was settled in a telephone conversation between the ministers.
But the Chechen issue will not leave the agenda of Russian-Polish relations for a long time. Yesterday, a Vremya Novostei correspondent decided to visit the Chechen Information Center, which opened in Krakow in 1995 and has caused a lot of trouble for Russian diplomats. The green Chechen flag no longer flew over the building overlooking the Main Market Square, and the door on the third floor was closed with an iron grill. Neighbors, students of the Jagiellonian University, said that they had not noticed any signs of life here for a long time. But around the walls of houses there are leaflets with portraits of Dzhokhar Dudayev, Zelimkhan Yandarbiev and Aslan Maskhadov. The leaflets were signed by the People-State-Independence Club, the Federation of Struggling Youth and the Poland-Belarus Committee.
Relations between Moscow and Warsaw are also clouded by the discussion in Poland surrounding the Polish president’s decision to participate in the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Victory over fascism. Although Alexander Kwasniewski has already stated twice that he will come to Moscow on May 9, serious controversy has unfolded in Poland. “The Moscow celebrations and the participation of the Polish president in them will become a breeding ground for Putin’s tyranny,” says Newsweek-Polska magazine. “To believe that the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Moscow have no political overtones is the same as to claim that the 1936 Berlin Olympics were a purely sporting event." Valery MASTEROV, staff correspondent for Moscow News, -- for Vremya Novostei, Krakow-Warsaw
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