Putin obstructs Russian-Polish relations

On a visit to Warsaw on Monday Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev shook his host's hand in a gesture of reconciliation over the Katyn Massacre. His visit could spell a breakthrough in historic terms but Putin's Russia poses a problem, the conservative daily Lidové noviny writes: "Russia's major problem is not the Stalinist past but the sombre present. The parody of a democracy, the Putinist government, the occupation of a third of Georgia. When the Polish President Bronisław Komorowski said he believes in the possibility of 'normal relations' with Russia, he set a precondition at the same time: At least when something resembling a 'normal' state emerges from today's Putin-Medvedev Russia. But it will take more than a condemnation of Stalinism for that to happen."

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