MOSCOW – Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife died Saturday along with 130 others when their plane crashed while coming in for a landing in western Russia, officials said.

The governor of the Smolensk region, where the crash took place about 11 a.m. (0700 GMT), said no one survived.

"The Polish presidential plane did not make it to the runway while landing. Tentative findings indicate that it hit the treetops and fell apart," Sergei Anufriev said on state news channel Rossiya-24. "Nobody has survived the disaster."

The Polish foreign ministry confirmed that Kaczynski and his wife were aboard the plane.

The head of Russia's top investigative body, Sergei Marking, said there were a total of 132 people on the plane, a Tu-154.

Kaczynski was flying to Russia for events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police in Katyn and elsewhere during World War II.

The presidential plane was a Soviet-built Tupolev TU154M, at least 20 years old. The Army chief of staff, Gen. Franciszek Gagor, National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremoer were on the passenger list.

In Warsaw, Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an extraordinary meeting of his Cabinet.

Kaczynski, 60, became president in December 2005 after defeating Tusk in that year's presidential vote.Polish leader, dozens dead in Russia jet crash - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100410/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_plane_crash)

Lech Kaczynski was an adviser to Lech Walesa during the Solidarity days of opposition to Soviet Control of Poland .He saw energy security as a big challenge facing Poland's future.He worked toward strengthening ties with the US and the EU ;as well as with Ukraine ,the Baltic States ,and Georgia.After the 2008 Russian defeat of Georgia ,he allowed the President of Poland's web site to be used to disseminate information that had been blocked by the Russians. This of course naturally put him at odds with the thug running Russia Vladimir Putin.

Of recent tensions is the planned Nord Stream pipeline in the North Sea ,that would hug the Polish coast,but effectively bypass Poland in supplying energy directly to Germany.As you know ;the Russians have used the supply of energy to Westerm Europe as a strategic weapon in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nordstream.png

To counter this Poland recently announced an agreement to build a gas pipeline from Lithuania linking all the Baltic States to the Polish distribution system effectively bypassing Russia and offering Western Europe an alternative to the Russian energy stranglehold.

I am not sure why he was there to honor the Katyn massacre(20,000 Polish officers, police and others murdered by the Soviet secret police and buried in mass graves in the Katyn forest near Smolensk ).Kaczynski was not invited .Originally he was snubbed ,and Putin had invited his political rival PM Donald Tusk hoping to drive a wedge in Polish internal politics.

But I have my theory. Back in 2004 ,in an attempt to influeunce politics in the Ukraine , Russian agents poisoned opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko with dioxin . Could it be that Kaczynski's plane just missed the runway ? Yes ,but I don't believe in this case ,I don't believe in coincidences.

At least it wasn't a Ricin tipped umbrella this time.

Lol... Russia said Putin will personally head the investigation into the crash.
I'm so glad that KGB killer Vlad the Irradiator is taking charge!


Alexander Litvinenko was was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service, FSB and KGB, who escaped prosecution in Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom. He authored two books, "Blowing up Russia: Terror from within" and "Lubyanka Criminal Group", where he accused the Russian secret services of staging Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts to bring Vladimir Putin to power.

On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized. He died three weeks later, becoming the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome...
Subsequent investigations by British authorities into the circumstances of Litvinenko's death led to serious diplomatic difficulties between the British and Russian governments. Unofficially, British authorities asserted that "we are 100% sure who administered the poison, where and how". However they did not disclose their evidence in the interest of a future trial. The main suspect in the case, a former officer of the Russian Federal Protective Service (FSO) Andrei Lugovoy, remains in Russia. As a member of the Duma, he now enjoys immunity from prosecution.


On 2 March 2007 Paul Joyal, a former director of security for the U.S. Senate intelligence committee, who the previous weekend alleged on national television that the Kremlin was involved in the poisoning of Litvinenko, was shot near his Maryland home. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko

Hello tom:

See where targeting killings can lead? I don't like it, I tell you.

excon

Last I heard Poland and Russia were not at war.

Are you telling me you object to the Predator strikes on AQ also ?

Are you telling me you object to the Predator strikes on AQ also ?Hello again, tom:

I don't want to hijack your thread, but the question IS worth exploring in my view. You could start another thread...

If we're targeting AQ because of what they're DOING, fine. Kill 'em. War is hell. But, if we target them because of WHO they are, and we kill 'em when they're shopping in the market with their family, or even just strolling down the road by themselves, yeah - I have a problem with that.

excon

Well in the case of al-Awlaki then ,he is being targeted for what he does. He recruits jihadists to kill us.

More news : according to reports there are 96 dead... of which 88 were part of the Polish government .

A partial list includes:
Lech Kaczysnki - Polish president

Maria Kaczynska - The president's wife

Ryszard Kaczorowski - last president of the anti-Communist government-in-exile in London, 1989-90. The government-in-exile was set up after the prewar Warsaw government was forced to flee the Nazis in 1939.

Aleksander Szczyglo - head of the National Security Office and former defense minister

Pawel Wypych - presidential aide

Mariusz Handzlik - presidential aide

Jerzy Szmajdzinski - deputy parliament speaker and former defense minister

Andrzej Kremer - Deputy Foreign Minister

Gen. Franciszek Gagor - head of the army chief of staff

Andrzej Przewoznik - minister in charge of WWII memorials

Slawomir Skrzypek - head of the National Bank of Poland

Janusz Kurtyka - head of the National Remembrance Institute, a state body that investigates communist-era crimes

Przemyslaw Gosiewski - lawmaker

Zbigniew Wassermann - lawmaker

Grzegorz Dolniak - lawmaker

Janusz Kochanowski - civil rights commissioner

Bishop Tadeusz Ploski - army chaplain

Our condolences to our Polish friends in this tragedy...

Russian Prosecutor's Office names 3 reasons for crash of Polish President's aircraft - PanARMENIAN.Net (http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/world/news/46858/Russian_Prosecutors_Office_names_3_reasons_for_cra sh_of_Polish_Presidents_aircraft)

I thought there were rules against so many heads of state together like that.
My condolences go out to them as well.

I did also NK. I have heard on international news that a person (?) is presently in place at the seat of their government though.

There are in the US and probably in Canada . This was a decapitation .But take heart PM Donald Tusk went with Putin to the Katyn memorial together.