Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to visit Poland in December, First Lady Svetlana Medvedev said on Sunday at a meeting with Anna Komorowski, the wife of Poland's president.
The two first ladies were attending a ceremony near Smolensk to remember the 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, who died in a plane crash in western Russia on April 10.
"Learning about your willingness to lead a delegation of relatives and pay your respects to the victims of the crash that occurred six months ago, I found it necessary to participate in this process as well," Medvedev said.
"I know the Russian president's visit to Poland is coming in December of this year, and I think the visit will be a milestone on the path of our relations coming together," Medvedev said, hailing the "importance" of the links created on Sunday.
After years of antagonism, Russian-Polish relations had been improving in the lead-up to the visit of President Kaczynski and a high-level delegation to mark the 60th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, and both governments showed their determination not to let the tragedy derail the progress that had been made.
Komorowski thanked Medvedev for attending the ceremony, which was boycotted by Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw, who has been fiercely critical of the Russian-Polish investigation into the crash. Kaczynski ran in the snap presidential elections that followed the death of his brother, losing to Bronislaw Komorowski in a runoff.
SMOLENSK, October 10 (RIA Novosti)
