Putin Holds Out Hand To Poland

In a bold and unexpected gesture of reconciliation, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid flowers Wednesday at a monument to Polish World War II resistance fighters who were persecuted and discredited by the Soviets.

Putin's unscheduled visit to the Home Army monument underscored his assertions that he is serious about improving Polish-Russian ties left in tatters after the end of communist rule in 1989.

Putin, the first Russian president to visit Warsaw in eight years, made no comment as he laid a bouquet of pink carnations at the monument, erected near Poland's parliament building in 1999.

It nonetheless is sure to have a powerful effect on Poles, for whom the Home Army is a national symbol of resistance against oppression.

"It is a significant gesture," said Marek Borowski, the speaker of Poland's parliament, who accompanied Putin. "In our talks with President Putin, President (Aleksander) Kwasniewski and myself, I underlined that the past for Poles is important."

Many Poles remain bitter about the Soviet decision to halt its advancing force outside Warsaw while Nazi troops brutally crushed a Home Army uprising and destroyed much of the city in late 1944.

Home Army members later were persecuted and denied credit for their struggle against the Nazis. The Home Army, Europe's strongest resistance movement in World War II, had about 350,000 soldiers in 1944 and took orders from Poland's government-in-exile in London.

"We view this visit as a milestone in relations between our countries," Putin said earlier Wednesday after talks with Kwasniewski. "Today we have good possibilities to expand our political contacts."

Kwasniewski said their conversation was "very sincere and open" and called Putin an excellent partner for whom there were no "taboo subjects."

Moscow was furious when Poland, along with fellow former Warsaw Pact allies Hungary and the Czech Republic, joined the West's NATO alliance in 1999. Warsaw and Moscow expelled diplomats accused of spying, and high-level contacts all but ceased.

Russia also has worried that when Poland joins the European Union, expected in 2004, it will have to impose visa and border restrictions that could amount to a new barrier between East and West.

Since Putin came to power in 2000, however, Moscow has taken a more accommodating view of Poland's tilt to the West.

Putin said Wednesday he did not believe EU membership would hurt Warsaw's relations with Moscow, but he warned against creating "barriers for contacts of our citizens."

Kwasniewski sought to assure Putin that Poland, a country of 39 million people between Germany and the former Soviet Union, seeks to be a bridge rather than a buffer between East and West.

"We will not turn our back on our eastern neighbors," Kwasniewski said. He promised a solution that would make future travel restrictions for non-EU nationals as lenient as possible.

Putin's visit coincides with Polish efforts to renegotiate natural-gas dels with Moscow, on which Warsaw is heavily dependent. Polish officials, eager to narrow the resulting $3 billion annual trade deficit with Russia, say increased two-way trade would help.

Putin's agenda includes a visit to a construction fair and participation in a Polish-Russian business forum Thursday in the western city of Poznan.

By Andrzej Stylinski
©MMII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed