Word: tusk
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...days before the second tragedy, the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, and the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, met to formalize a protracted process of painful accommodation regarding the Katyn crime. What happened in the forest 70 years ago was for many years a forbidden fact of life in Polish society. From the end of World War II to 1989, Poland was politically subservient to the Soviet Union. Even the closest relatives of those who perished at Katyn were not allowed to talk about it. People who claimed that their fathers or grandfathers had died on a certain date...
...When Tusk and Putin met on April 7, the goal of the two men was a formal and comprehensive reconciliation of their nations. Putin spoke at that event and spoke well. But he still spoke more as a statesman doing what was needed; somehow, he did not really connect, in a human sense, with the Poles. By contrast, within hours of the fatal plane crash outside Smolensk three days later, Putin himself was on the spot in Katyn, reaching out to the Poles in a spontaneously warm and compassionate fashion. That all of a sudden infused human feelings into...
While the president's role is largely symbolic, the holder can veto government legislation. Lech Kaczynski infuriated the Tusk government several times by blocking legislation including health sector reform. (See pictures of the Buffalo, N.Y. plane crash...
...dominant force in Polish politics, brings political uncertainty. A presidential election had been due in October but now must be held within two months, according to the constitution. Kaczynski was widely expected to seek another five-year term as president. Opinion polls had suggested he would lose to Tusk's centrist candidate, Bronislaw Komorowski (who, as speaker of the lower house of parliament, will take over the president's duties in the interim, under the terms of Poland's constitution). But Saturday's tragedy may have changed the political picture...
...Tusk and Putin showed solidarity in the face of the tragedy by holding a joint press conference at the place of the catastrophe. Nevertheless, Poland has announced it will carry out its own investigation into the causes of the crash. So far the most probable cause is the error of judgment on the part of the pilot, who attempted a second landing at the Smolensk airport despite being warned by traffic controllers to divert to Moscow or Minsk because of thick fog. When descending, the plane clipped the tree line and broke in two, resulting in the deadly crash that...