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Posted in Poland, Russia
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05/8 2010

“The Katyn Problem in Contemporary Russia” | Memorial

Professor Aleksandr Guryanov’s presentation [translated from Russian] from the Katyn observances at the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress, May 5, 2010.

This is sent with permission of Professor Mark Kramer [translator] and the Harvard University Cold War Archives. It can be reprinted or reposted with acknowledgment.

“The Katyn Problem in Contemporary Russia”

Aleksandr Guryanov, “Memorial” Society

Esteemed Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen:

First of all I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the organizers for
inviting me to this conference marking the seventieth anniversary of the Katyn crime and for giving me the honor of speaking to you as a
representative of the Russian “Memorial” Society.

The Memorial Society, in addition to its work in defending human rights in Russia in our own time, pursues the study of the history of political repression in the Soviet Union, documenting the fate of repressed people and assisting their moral and legal rehabilitation. READ MORE

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04/12 2010

Polish plane crash claims leading democrats of Solidarnosc generation

National Endowment for Democracy LogoDemocracy Digest from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED): A strange blend of sadness and celebration marked the start of the World Movement for Democracy’s 6th Assembly in Jakarta today – poignancy over the tragic plane crash in Poland which robbed the democracy movement of several major figures sat uneasily with the vibrancy of such a diverse, cross-cultural gathering of 600 participants from over

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Polish plane crash claims leading democrats of Solidarnosc generation

Posted in Opinia.US, Poland, Russia
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11/7 2009

Russia attacks Sikorski on comments about U.S. troops in Poland

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski with Zbigniew BrzezinskiOpinia.USOpinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — A member of the Russian parliament has criticized Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski for his comments during his visit this week to Washington, but the Polish foreign ministry has disputed the accuracy of Russian news reports quoting Sikorski’s statement. READ MORE

Posted in Opinia.US, Poland, Russia
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11/7 2009

U.S. media ignore Russia’s simulated attack on Poland

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, tours the Russian Military Academy of the General Staff in Moscow, Russia, June 27, 2009. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley/Released)Opinia.USOpinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Mirroring the Obama Administration’s diminished interest in Eastern Europe and unwillingness to challenge Russia’s aggressive foreign policy in the region, mainstream U.S. media ignored Polish and British news reports about a simulated attack on Poland, which Russian troops conducted during military exercises in Belarus in September. Polish news magazine Wprost reported that Russian aircraft practiced the use of nuclear weapons in the attacks. Wprost also reported it has obtained documents which show that the military exercises portrayed Poland as “a potential aggressor.”

Mainstream U.S. media, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, ignored this story. READ MORE

Posted in Poland, Russia
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10/28 2009

Biden: Missile defense is not about Russia

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Central University Library Bucharest, in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, October 22, 2009. Official White House photo by David LienemannOpinia.USOpinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — In a speech in Bucharest, Romania, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden categorically denied that President Obama’s new missile defense proposal was meant to appease Russia.

“Some — maybe even understandably — jump to the conclusion that this new missile defense approach was meant to appease Russia at the expense of Central Europe. Nothing could be further from the truth. READ MORE

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10/27 2009

More diplomatic confusion between U.S. and Poland

Polish Soldier in AfghanistanOpinia.USOpinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — U.S. media has not yet picked up on the latest diplomatic controversy between Poland and the U.S. But the public disagreement between president Obama’s new ambassador in Warsaw Lee A. Feinstein and the Polish defense minister over plans to send additional Polish troops to Afghanistan is drawing media attention in Poland. READ MORE

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10/3 2009

Did White House coordinate missile decision with Kremlin?

President Obama with President Medvedev in New YorkOpinia.USOpinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Bloggers and Russian experts in the US have been trying to find out whether the Obama White House coordinated with the Kremlin the timing of the missile shield decision that deeply offended people in Poland and produced biting commentaries in the US. Speculations abound that Russian diplomats, working on instructions from propaganda experts within the Kremlin, tricked White House and State Department officials to get President Obama to choose September 17 to announce his cancellation of the Bush plan to build missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. September 17, 2009 was the date of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the beginning of WWII. READ MORE

Posted in PD, Poland, Russia, State Dept.
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10/3 2009

US Embassy Warsaw sees insensitive timing of Obama’s missile decision

President Obama with President Lech KaczynskiOpinia.USOpinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Displaying unprecedented boldness for a US diplomatic mission, the US Embassy in Warsaw conceded on its official public website that Poles believe that the “insensitive timing” — as the Embassy put it — of the Obama administration announcement on canceling the US missile shield system in Central Europe “shows that Obama does not understand Poland.” In what may be a deliberate US public diplomacy effort to repair the public relations damage in Poland, READ MORE

Posted in PD, Poland, Russia, State Dept.
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09/20 2009

Walesa on Obama’s Missile Diplomacy

Hillary ClintonTedLipien.com

“It wasn’t that the shield was that important, but it’s about the way, the way of treating us.”

–Lech Wałęsa, the former Polish president and Solidarity leader, regarding the US decision to drop the missile defense shield in Poland, John Brown’s Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Version 2.0

Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam

Wired READ MORE