Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will head for the western Russian city of Smolensk on Monday, where he is expected to hold talks with his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski.
The two leaders will lay wreaths to a memorial at the site of an air crash last year that killed then-president Lech Kaczynski and a host of other Polish top officials near Smolensk. They are also expected to visit a memorial commemorating the Katyn massacre of Polish soldiers at the hands of the Soviet secret service.
Komorowski will visit Russia on Medvedev’s invitation. The two presidents last met in Warsaw in December 2010.
The Polish Air Force’s Tu-154 that was carrying Kaczynski and 95 others crashed in thick fog on April 10, 2010. Everyone on board died. The delegation was due to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre.
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.
A day before the first anniversary of the crash, the families of those killed in the crash visited the site of the tragedy.
MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti)