It is a great job by Putin. Yes, for a criminal the whole nation shouldn't carry on the blame forever what was against humanity.Since my childhood I have been reading about Stalin's brutality. My question is by killing people what kind of welfare the state can introduce to the people.This is why communism didn't exist. It will not exist as well in China. Because they are doing similar thing. Not only that they are encouraging their fellow countries to do the same. What I have observed in Putin's rule that he is doing really good.He made Russia's backbone stronger. As Russia doing good this why Latin American's bending towards Russia. I don't know whether my request will reach to Putin or not but even though I would like to request Prime- minister Putin and President Medvedev not to follow China blindly.Specially about Myanmar matter.Burmese army regime doing the similar thing what Stalin used to do. Russia's stance about Iran is praise worthy.So, why Russia is not going further to support suppressed and persecuted people of Myanmar those who are dieing for democracy.By doing this I can say that Russia will gain more support from the world and Russia's image will be glorified.

RT: "The crimes of Stalin’s regime cannot be justified, Premier Vladimir Putin has said. However, Russians cannot be blamed for the 1940 massacre in the Katyn forest, where over 20,000 Poles were executed, he added." Vladimir Putin is absolutely correct in stating that the Russian people can not be blamed for the evil of Stalin. No more than the American whites can be blamed for the evils of enslavement and mass murders of Africans in the 16th - 19th centuries. Stalin and Stalinism spawned from the minds of monsters who spread their evil throughout the USSR and lands occupied by the Red Army during WW II. This evil ceased when Stalin was assasinated in 1953, and Beria was executed. The Soviet Union acknowledged and repudiated the evils of Stalinism in 1956. There are malicious people on the RT board who are continually trying to tarnish the Russian Federation and the Russian people with the crimes of Stalin. They seem to be motivated by an insane and irrational bitterness towards Russians. Others of their ilk are conniving individuals in former Soviet republics who have built their political careers bashing Russia and Russians. Both the bitter and the conniving individuals are a dying breed whose departure from this earth will not be missed.

“However, suggesting that the Russian people are to blame for that is the same kind of lie and fabrication." Fair enough. It's not like Russians as a collective people controlled their government during any point in the Soviet period, and although Russians were largely those who actually did things like kill these Poles, it isn't like they really had a choice. They either had to do it or themselves get shot, and the people who did do it are at any rate all or almost all dead. Nevertheless, it can't hurt for the state to apologize post de facto for what its predecessor did because as an entity Russia committed these acts and as an entity it will best console and reassure the nations wronged that Russia is no longer what it once was if it apologizes. This applies to the US equally well for many cases obviously, and although the US has usually failed to do this, this doesn't mean my reasoning is wrong. Superpowers tend to have a lot to apologize for. Ultimately, Poland and Russia should treat eachother as they are rather than as they were, and what Putin did should help the two countries put the past behind them.

What exactly happens if, and when, Russia admits to the killing in Katyn? Does anyone win a special prize? What is the main aim? Poland will want reparations from Russia? That's fine. Because after Russia gets done writing off all the assistance they gave Poland after WW2 (and they did, regardless of any and all political grudges/disgreements in the past), Poland will end up owing Russia! Poland's behavior is like israeil's. They blame EVERYONE around for their misfortunes. It is shameful. Look to the future.

Germany has apologised the world and the Jews in particular for the horors of the German Nazi regime and keeps paying the victims up to this day. There was a Nurenberg trial for Nazi officials who carried out the atrocities. Atonement seems to have cleansed the Germans and they seem to be a very strong democracy among the free nations of the world. They do remember the horors the caused and they are sorry. The problem with Russia is that it has never apologised the countries that Russian Soviet regime had wronged. It was the Russian soldiers who killed Polish officers in Katyn, it was the Russian soldiers who raped and murdered innocent people in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Ukraine and sent thousands of them to die in concentration camps in Siberia and Kazachstan long after WWII was over, what about uprisals against the Soviet regime in Prague and Hungary? No trial was held for Communist NKVD and KGB officials who commited atrocities and genocide in countries occupied by Russia during the WWII. The Jews were discriminated throughout the whole Soviet era as well. Russia is not sorry. On the contrary, it seems that all Russia is willing to talk is about its victory in WWII, any attempt to discuss the Soviet genocide is understood as an attack. Should millions of deaths be written off? Important note: no other countries want Russia to be a democratic and friendly country more than the neighbouring countries. Such as Poland, Georgia, the Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. They want the past to be the past and concentrate on building their democracies and friendly relations with the neighbours, especially Russia. Russia is a great country, it could prove that by apologising for its Soviet regime atrocities and everybody would move on. However, if you read Russian press, there are no good articles about the Baltic States, for example. All news are negative, on this RT website as well. Where do we go from here?

Justice, It is interesting to see that you say the Soviet Union and Russia are one and the same. You make statements such as it was Russian soldiers this, and Russian KGB officials this, and yet I sincerely doubt you looked into the names of each soldier involved in any example you have given, and looked into their ethnic background, and then looked into the ethnicity of those who gave the orders, to be able to fault the modern nation of Russia for the crimes of the USSR and its politburo that was not ethnically based. Stalin gave those orders. Stalin was Georgian. He was also a communist. Krushchev was Ukrainian. Brezhnev kept switching back and forth between Ukrainian and Russian. He simply continued the policy under Kruschchev. Russians made up ~50% of the Soviet Union. 50 bloody percent. So stop pretending the USSR was Russia with a few million non-Russians attached. The minority of ethnic Russian leaders were General Secretaries of the USSR that were involved in the crimes you speak of. Russians who stood against Communism were persecuted just as much as non-Russians who stood against it were. Russia did not occupy anything in WW2, because the Russian nation did not exist at that point in time. Deal with it.

@ Justice, are you saying then that what Putin did and said at the Katyn memorial is not good enough for the Polish people? I thought he said it was a crime against the Polish as well as against the Soviet victims.

It seems that Justice has a problem differentiating between Russia and the soviet union. Will make it easier for him or her to understand. Should the Californians be held responsible for the killing of the native Americans? are they the ones to make an apology or is it for the USA to make one? Are these that killed the native Americans all Californians? Problem is that during the cols war "Russia" in movies also stood for the USSR, when in reality Russia was one of the states in the USSR.Granted that it was the largest one.Yet that did not reflect in the Government. We all know that Stalin who ordered the massacre was Georgian. Shall we now hold the Georgians responsible for his actions? After all its fairer then blaming the Russians for it. Russia became the successor state to the USSR, it does not mean it should take on the blame for the actions of the USSR. If an apology is to be given, all former states of the USSR have to make one together. I do not see the Poles apologizing to the Russian for the actions of their national Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky the great creator of the gulags in Russia and the Cheka too, responsible for millions of Russian deaths? I do not think they should, nor do I expect the Russians to give any sort of an apology neither.

Katyn, Kharkov and Miednoje Brutal Cold NKVD Murder places are a facts, which ware denied for decades, but finally Polish people will move forward. Point is, that this fact will be presented honestly in books, news etc. for young generation. No-one will bring lives of all people who died in II WW, but we shoul've know it and remember for future times, to not repeat "this big mistake" (L.Beria). This is main idea for Polish people today, that truth will be objective and not manipulated is lost in all the news. As Polish citizen I do like RT and in my opinion: this news was honest, like about General Sikorski's "Was Polish war leader assassinated?" I do like objective profetional information about these two important short news in Russia Today. Thank you

Speaking as a Pole whose family were deported to Siberia (so I'm not exactly a Ruso-phile) to say it was Russian soldiers is very ignorant, just because the soldiers spoke Russian doesn't mean they were Russian! They were SOVIET soldiers so could have been Ukranian, Belarussian, Georgian etc. We all know Stalin himself was born in Georgia, so why keep asking Russia for this or for that? Has Poland given an appology to the peoples of the former Soviet Union for Feliks Dzierżyński (who was born into a Polish noble family) and the crimes against humanity that the Cheka commited?

The murders at Katyn forest, terrible as they are, pale in comparison to the murders of innocent people during bombing raids on Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and numerous other German and Japanese cities. Some estimates put Iraqi deaths from US invasion at over a million. There is never any attempt to smear the American people with the shame for what their government did during WW II and now in he Mideast. God only knows what the casualties will be when America decides to attack Iran. Poles are justified in honoring the victims of the Katyn massacre, but they should not forget that the Red Army saved Poland from extinction had the Germans won the war. Vladimir Putin was very dignified in the respect he showed at the Katyn ceremonies.

Putin said, “However, suggesting that the Russian people are to blame for that (the Katyn massacre) is ...(a) lie and fabrication." But no one suggests this. Those who committed the massacre are to blame for it. It so happens that they were overwhelmingly Russians. It also happens that they committed that crime in carrying out the direct policies and instructions of Moscow, their national capital. The responsibility to atone for the crime rests on the Russian nation. In a corresponding way, each and every German is not to blame for the crimes of Nazi Germany, but the Nazi Germany certainly was to blame, and the responsibility for atoning for its crimes fell on post-Nazi Germany. Russians love to argue that they are guilty of nothing because Stalin was a Georgian. However, they do not extend the same “logic” to others, claiming that Germans were guilty of nothing because Hitler was an Austrian.

Kihnu - they are indeed pale, but You must know few things mostly unmentioned here on RT - in pre-1939 Poland military class was highly favoured by the state - polish officers income was highest in Europe at that time. Basically most of the intelligence in Poland had military background, and assasination of those officers by the NKVD basically destroyed polish intelllectual elite - that is why this is such a touchy subject fro most Poles. Of course You can think why polish intelectual elite surrendered to enemy that didnt sign any POW convention - simply put most of them had still first world war in mind, where enemy officers spent rest of the war in camps playing cards - they had no idea that it was total war. Marzipan - in this matter I really cant agree with You. USSR was o multinational (and even anti-national) whilst Germany was a nationallist regime (in its doctrine). People who shot polish officers in Katyn where mostly jewish origin (some had polish citizenship before). There are two trends going in polish media now about responsibility of Katyn: 1) Katyn massacre was a extension of russian nationalist imperialism over other nations dated far to the tsardom period 2) Katyn massacre was strictly a soviet imperialism policy eliminating burgeois military class (similiar to white russia officers clansing) I see first point so absurd, that I dont want to comment it. Germans choose their own leaders, while bolsheviks made a coup with little support resulting a bloody civil war. I find it wrong to blame any nation for the crimes of their leaders - nevermind if those are Germans, Russians or Poles.

I hope I wont get kicked for spamming :). I will and my point in this post - most of the ruckus in Poland about Katyn came because there was fear that Russia will try to reinvent its history again and will praise stalinist period negationg Katyn - leaving Poland at the end of the stick. I personally think all that was needed was said already both by Mr. Tusk and Mr. Putin. They both are in difficult position as they can`t give much more - nationalists and radicals are in both Poland and Russia - plus both nations have their own pride. We are at the point where there is not much to be done - Mr. Putin will not bow down to Katyn monument, and Mr. Tusk will not apologize for the unfortunate death of soviet POWs. Otherwise there will be neverending spiral of demands and apologies for issues no one really cares. I think that for the both polish and russian officials this is a good point to bounce the relations to the good course again we had in 1993. We are living in unique times when both Russia and Poland have no actual feud. Both are not perceived by each other as clear enemies, and both have best interests in developing economical, political and cultural ties between. This is actually happening under all this fuss around Katyn and AMD shield.

April 08, 2010, 02:18, paul wrote > What exactly happens if, and when, Russia admits to the killing in Katyn? Does anyone win a special prize? What is the main aim? Poland will want reparations from Russia? That's fine. Because after Russia gets done writing off all the assistance they gave Poland after WW2 (and they did, regardless of any and all political grudges/disgreements in the past), Poland will end up owing Russia! > Poland's behavior is like israeil's. They blame EVERYONE around for their misfortunes. It is shameful. Look to the future. I am Polish and can tell you this, Polish nationalism needs Katyn. Most of our government members are obsessively anti Russian (the people on the streets less, even though they are bombarded with anti Russian propaganda by almost all the media each day). It’s a sickness that is fueled on a regular basis. It is political, it is in someone’s interest to keep Poland very anti Russian. All other acts of terror committed on the Poles during the 2nd world war are played downed, for example: during the 2nd War hundreds of thousands of Poles were killed, tortured and mutilated by Western Ukrainian nationalists, the Gestapo watching and admiring. They were village and town people, not soldiers. But because Poland’s political strategy is to be friendly with the Ukraine and to get the country out of the Russian political sphere, the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of civilians murdered in Wolyn is completely ignored by the Polish government, much of the church and most of the media. The ex-President of the Ukraine made a national hero of the man responsible for the massacres, there was hardly no reaction from our government, and yet to this far lesser crime (Katyn), salt is added to the wound on a regular basis

Kihnu compares cold-blooded mass murder of over 20,000 Polish officers and others in the service of Soviet Russian paranoia to civilian deaths of allied bombing raids. For sure, the dead are equally as dead in either case. The one case is internationally recognised as part of warfare, and Kihnu himself defends similar Russian bombing of civilians even while he accuses other combatants of doing likewise. The other is cold-blooded and deliberate murder, internationally recognised as a war crime. After the war, the Western Allies gave Japan and Germany freedom, and facilitated their return to prosperity, while the Soviet Union continued oppressing and occupying Poland and Eastern Europe for as long as it could, for around another 50 years. When East Germany finally emerged to freedom, British civilians organised a collection to finance the refurbishment of the bells of Dresden Cathedral, and held a ceremony of reconciliation with the people of that city. When Russia emerged from Soviet rule, it still clung – and clings – to Soviet era lies, defames all who resisted Soviet tyranny as Nazis, and credits itself as the liberator of Poland and Eastern Europe. Some liberty. Pan A meanwhile, suggests that because all Soviet soldiers weren’t Russian, none were, and therefore Russia, as the primary successor state of the Soviet Union, has no responsibility to atone for Soviet crimes. I bet he doesn’t feel the same way about Germany, and doesn’t think that just because all Nazi troops weren’t Germans, none were and that therefore the Federal Republic of Germany, Nazi Germany’s primary successor state, had no responsibility to atone for Germany’s Nazi-era crimes. Pan’s comments about Dzierzinski are even more illogical. The Cheka was not an expression of Polish imperialism and had nothing to do with Polish government policy. The Soviet Union was an expression of Russian imperialism and had everything to do with Russian policy.

April 08, 2010, 13:08, Pan A wrote > Speaking as a Pole whose family were deported to Siberia (so I'm not exactly a Ruso-phile) to say it was Russian soldiers is very ignorant, just because the soldiers spoke Russian doesn't mean they were Russian! > They were SOVIET soldiers so could have been Ukranian, Belarussian, Georgian etc. We all know Stalin himself was born in Georgia, so why keep asking Russia for this or for that? > Has Poland given an appology to the peoples of the former Soviet Union for Feliks Dzierżyński (who was born into a Polish noble family) and the crimes against humanity that the Cheka commited? In fact, it is very probable that the Ukrainians and Belarusians influenced Stalin’s decision. We must not forget that the 2 countries (then republics) were in general very anti Polish. For centuries Poles colonized and made up the upper class of the region, and constantly fought down Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalism, many terrible crimes and acts of violence were committed, and to many people “revenge is sweet”.

The Russian Federation is the so called continuation state in exercising the rights and fulfilling the obligations of the former USSR. Russia inherited from the Soviet Union good things like olimpic medals, space technologies etc. and bad things like Katyn massacre, Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact etc. About Felix Dzerzhinsky- His monument in "Dzerzhinsky Square" (pl. Plac Dzierżyńskiego), in the center of Warsaw, was so hated by the population of the Polish capital as a symbol of Soviet oppression that it was toppled in 1989, as soon as the PZPR started losing power. His statues in Poland were removed due to his unpopularity with the Polish people, in spite of his Polish nationality. He always supported USSR and was "persona non grata" in Poland. He is still popular in Russia and Belarus ( monuments, streets, museums, cities names) like Stalin-voted third most popular RUSSIAN.

No live baby can be delivered from production line of guilt tripping. This culture is recycling death. We can’t bury death even with moral performance. It stays with(in) us. However we can accept its dignity once we focus on tragedy and stay silent. To make such silent ceremony politically moving – some genuine personality must attend on behalf of charismatic identity and on behalf of charismatic community. This Katyn achieved both with Tusk and Putin reflecting the pursuit of life in the background of Catholic-and-Orthodox monumental self-denying discipline. Nothing else is allowed to anybody.