Moscow: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin on Sunday bade farewell to the body of Polish President Lech
Kaczynski, who died in a crash, at a solemn ceremony with full
military honours.
The body arrived in Polish capital Warsaw this evening
from Russia where he was killed along with his wife Maria and
94 others when his Russian-built jet came down in thick fog
near Smolensk yesterday on the way to a memorial service for
22,000 Poles massacred by Soviet troops in World War II.
On the tarmac of the military aerodrome Severny in
Smolensk region, Putin placed flowers on the coffin with the
remains of Kaczynski draped in Polish flag.
After the national anthems of Poland and Russia, the
guard of honour saluted the Polish leader and his body was
flown aboard a special aircraft of the Polish Air Force to
Warsaw.
"This is first and foremost Poland`s tragedy and that
of the Polish people, but this is also our tragedy, and we
mourn with you and grieve with you," Putin was quoted as
telling Polish television.
Ambassador Bar of Poland, who was present at the
ceremony, told reporters that the body of Kaczynski`s wife
Maria has not been identified and would be sent later, RIA
Novosti reported.
Earlier reports suggested that last night Kaczynski`s
twin brother Jaroslaw had identified both of them.
A probe headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has
blamed pilot error as the cause of the crash in dense fog on
the approaches of the Severny military aerodrome, in which top
polish political and military leaderships were wiped out.
Meanwhile, a top Russian investigator today said the
Polish Presidential aircraft was technically fit.
Head of the Prosecutor-General`s Investigation
Committee Alexander Bastrykin told Putin that the deciphered
flight recorders have confirmed absence of technical problems
with the plane.
The two flight recorders of the ill-fated aircraft are
being deciphered in Moscow jointly by the Russian and Polish
experts.
"The pilot was informed about complex weather
conditions and, nevertheless, made a decision on landing,"
Bastrykin said.
Poland was swept by a wave of grief and mourners
turned out in tens of thousands, many waving the red and white
Polish flag, lighting candles and placing flowers at the
presidential palace.
In Warsaw and other Polish cities, thousands poured
onto the streets to express their grief over the disaster that
also killed their last President-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski,
Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer, Army Chief of Staff
Gen Franciszek Gagor and National Bank President Slawomir
Skrzypek.
PTI
