Some hundreds of Poles are staging a demonstration in front of the Russian embassy in Warsaw to mark the first anniversary of the plane crash that killed president Lech Kaczynski, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.
The Polish Air Force’s Tu-154 that was carrying then-President Kaczynski and 95 others crashed in thick fog near the Russian city Smolensk on April 10, 2010. Everyone on board died. The high-ranking delegation was due to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre, in which Soviet secret police killed thousands of Polish military officers.
The Russia-based Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) in January laid the blame for the Kaczynski crash squarely on the Polish side, and some politicians in Poland have since lined up to try to pin blame elsewhere.
Participants of the demonstration are holding banners emblazed with the slogan “Only the terrible truth about Smolensk and Katyn can unite us, but lie – never”. There are also many banners with slogans criticizing the Russian and the Polish governments.
The rally was organized by the Polish paper Gazeta Polska. Police are keeping vigil near the embassy.
A day before the first anniversary of the Kaczynski plane crash, the families of the dead visited the site of the tragedy in western Russia.
WARSAW, April 9 (RIA Novosti)