Russia yesterday published the files on the 1940 Katyn massacre of Polish officers by the Soviets on the Internet, an unprecedented move aimed at intensifying a sudden thaw in Moscow-Warsaw ties.
The publication, ordered by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, comes at a time when Russian-Polish ties have been warming in the wake of the plane crash in western Russia earlier this month that killed Polish president Lech Kaczynski.
“On the order of Russian President D.A. Medvedev, electronic copies of authentic archival documents on the ‘Katyn Problem’ from ‘Packet No. 1,’ which were held for decades in the Communist Party archives, have been published on the Web site of the state archives,” it said in a statement.
The documents in question were declassified in September 1992 on the orders of then-president Boris Yeltsin and shared with Poland, so their contents had been long known, the statement said.
However, until now the originals had only been available to specialized researchers and had never before been shared online, a spokeswoman for the Russian state archives said.
One of the documents posted online is a four-page memorandum from Lavrenty Beria, head of the NKVD secret police, to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin about the fate of thousands of Polish prisoners held by the Soviets.
In the document, Beria proposes that the NKVD “quickly examine the use of the highest means of punishment — death by shooting.”
Stalin’s signature and a red stamp reading “Top Secret” are on the first page of the document, which is dated March 1940.
Poland has long demanded that Russia open all its files on Katyn and the issue has strained ties between the two former Communist neighbors.
The publication of “Packet No. 1” does not have any effect on a separate case in which Russian human rights activists have been waging a court battle to force prosecutors to declassify a 1990s investigation into the Katyn massacre.
Prosecutors closed the investigation in 2004 and have refused to open their files on the case.
Some 22,000 Polish officers were executed by Stalin’s secret police at Katyn, in western Russia, and a number of other places in present-day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in between April 1940 and May 1940.
The officers were taken prisoner after the Soviet Union invaded and occupied eastern Poland in September 1939, dividing up the country under the terms of a secret pact with Nazi Germany, which seized the rest of Poland.
For decades, Moscow blamed the Katyn massacre on Nazi Germany, until 1990 when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev finally admitted that the Polish officers had been executed as “enemies of Soviet power” by the NKVD.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Federation Council, its upper house of parliament, yesterday ratified a deal with Ukraine that will allow the Russian Black Sea Fleet to stay in Crimea until at least 2042.
Both the Russian lower house, the State Duma, and the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, had approved the deal on Tuesday, but the Ukrainian ratification was marred by scuffles and smoke bombs among deputies in Kiev.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number