OK, so the Poles piled all their senior politicians into a dilapidated Russian plane. so as to go into a part of Western Russia that used to be part of Poland before 1939, and pay tribute at a scene where the captured Polish intelligencia was mass-murdered by the Russians.
Two good reasons for Putin, a former KGB head, to be embarrassed. His KGB heritage puts him in linear descent from the NKVD that performed the mass-murders for Stalin and tried to cover it up by blaming it on the Germans.
Also, this is land forcibly taken from Poland in 1945 by the Soviets and which is still disputed in some quarters.
I can’t help reflecting that in 1944, with Stalin eager for a smooth transition of political legitimacy (I won’t say “power” ) to his stooges and puppets in Poland, there was a similar incident.
General Sikorski, one of Poland’s best leaders and a man who would have given the Communists a fight in a free election, and other members of the Polish government in exile, took a plane out of Gibaltrar. Which promptly crashed killing all on board.
Whuile the inquiry called this “inconclusive” and preferred to view it as an accident, enough evidence existed to point the fnger at Stalin putting a bomb on the plane.
I ask: what advantage could Putin get right now from fatally weakening the Polish leadership?
Their secession from NATO? A return to the Soviet fold?
The plane was old but had been overhauled a few months back and was the presidential plane. It explains the readiness of their pilots to obey the instructions of VIPs onboard despite their experience. It was for economic reasons since the aircraft is expensive to run, that they piled a fair number of well placed folks on that plane.
Polish newspapers haven’t speculated about conspiracy theories half as much (if at all) as foreign ones, so say our Polish colleagues. They’re bemused by the readiness of the British press to indulge in this.
Polish investigators have been given full access to the Russian investigations themselves and are participating in interviews with the Russians.
I think the Russians are quite mindful of the speculation so are bending over backwards all sugary & nice to accomodate the Poles.
AgProv about 14 years ago
OK, so the Poles piled all their senior politicians into a dilapidated Russian plane. so as to go into a part of Western Russia that used to be part of Poland before 1939, and pay tribute at a scene where the captured Polish intelligencia was mass-murdered by the Russians.
Two good reasons for Putin, a former KGB head, to be embarrassed. His KGB heritage puts him in linear descent from the NKVD that performed the mass-murders for Stalin and tried to cover it up by blaming it on the Germans.
Also, this is land forcibly taken from Poland in 1945 by the Soviets and which is still disputed in some quarters.
I can’t help reflecting that in 1944, with Stalin eager for a smooth transition of political legitimacy (I won’t say “power” ) to his stooges and puppets in Poland, there was a similar incident.
General Sikorski, one of Poland’s best leaders and a man who would have given the Communists a fight in a free election, and other members of the Polish government in exile, took a plane out of Gibaltrar. Which promptly crashed killing all on board.
Whuile the inquiry called this “inconclusive” and preferred to view it as an accident, enough evidence existed to point the fnger at Stalin putting a bomb on the plane.
I ask: what advantage could Putin get right now from fatally weakening the Polish leadership?
Their secession from NATO? A return to the Soviet fold?
CorosiveFrog Premium Member about 14 years ago
^plus the plane landed on russian soil, so if he was behind it, his men will investigate his crime.
OmqR-IV.0 about 14 years ago
The plane was old but had been overhauled a few months back and was the presidential plane. It explains the readiness of their pilots to obey the instructions of VIPs onboard despite their experience. It was for economic reasons since the aircraft is expensive to run, that they piled a fair number of well placed folks on that plane. Polish newspapers haven’t speculated about conspiracy theories half as much (if at all) as foreign ones, so say our Polish colleagues. They’re bemused by the readiness of the British press to indulge in this. Polish investigators have been given full access to the Russian investigations themselves and are participating in interviews with the Russians. I think the Russians are quite mindful of the speculation so are bending over backwards all sugary & nice to accomodate the Poles.