RUSSIA: First ladies of Poland and Russia attend memorial of Smolensk aircrash victims

Record ID: 1540048

  • Title: RUSSIA: First ladies of Poland and Russia attend memorial of Smolensk aircrash victims
  • Date: 11th October 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF DELEGATION MEMBERS ATTENDING CEREMONY
  • Embargoed: 26th October 2010 04:09
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA544YQXHS71CZJC0J6FA0A7KQV
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: The first ladies of Poland and Russia said on Sunday (October 10) that the plane crash that claimed the lives of the Polish president and 95 others in April had brought the two nations closer together.
    The two, Russian first lady Svetlana Medvedeva and Polish first lady Anna Komorowska, were speaking at a memorial ceremony held six-months after the crash at the accident site.
    The two presidential wives joined 170 relatives of the victims to place flowers and candles and attend a mass in a forest near the city of Smolensk, western Russia, where the presidential Tupolev Tu-154M crashed in thick fog.
    "We come together because of a shared grief," Medvedeva said. "The death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria and all the other people who were aboard the plane is a terrible and irrecoverable loss," she added.
    President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and many political and military leaders were killed on their way to a ceremony in Russia's Katyn forest to mark the anniversary of the killing of 22,000 Poles by the Soviet NKVD secret police in 1940.
    The historical context added further depth to the tragedy and the outpouring from Russian leaders in the aftermath helped thaw the often strained relations between the two Slavic neighbours.
    Sunday's ceremony was broadcast live in Poland and Russia.
    Anna Komorowska, the wife of President Bronislaw Komorowski, who succeeded Lech Kaczynski after his death in the plane crash, thanked Russia's first lady for attending the ceremony.
    "Thank you very much to Russia's President's wife Svetlana Medvedeva for being with us to pay tribute to our compatriots who died tragically in the accident on the 10th of April," she said.
    She added she hoped the visit to the crash site would help the families complete "the unfinished mission of their loved ones".
    However, disputes over Moscow's handling of the investigation pointed to a fresh rise in tensions.
    The rightist opposition, led by Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw, has criticised the government of Donald Tusk for not playing a more active role in the investigation. A recent poll showed that 62 percent of Poles disapprove of the way Moscow has dealt with the investigation.
    Before walking to the crash site near Smolensk, the victims' families also visited the wreckage of the presidential plane some two kilometres (1.2 miles) away. Many had been upset that the twisted metal remains were lying in the open before Russian authorities covered them earlier this month.
    After the ceremony the two first ladies held bilateral talks.
    ENDS.
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