Russia, Poland Face Strange Times
A key Russian Federal judge was publicly murdered this morning, in what was the latest in a series of strange but significant events to affect the country these last few weeks. First was the Metro bombing in late March, in which Chechen rebels killed several dozen civilians. Then, president Obama secured an unexpected agreement from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to reduce nuclear weapon stockpiles. More recently, US-Russia relations faced a different kind of tension when an American woman sent an adopted Russian boy back to his home country alone, causing Russia to reassess its willingness to continue future adoption programs in America.
However, the most significant event to shake the Russian world was the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski in a recent plane crash. Kaczynski, along with his wife, several senior Polish military officials, and almost 100 other people were flying to Russia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which Russian soldiers mass executed over 20,000 Polish prisoners.
Because the crash happened on Russian soil, there was some initial suspicion of foul play on the part of the Russians, who were quick to point out that the most likely cause of the crash was pilot error. Medvedev appointed Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to head a special team to investigate the crash, and so far Russia has appeared very sincere in sharing the Polish people’s grief.
Poland is still in its official period of mourning. Special elections must be held within 60 days to select a replacement leader.