Lech Kaczynski

Jaroslaw Kaczynski has been rallying Poles against Russia, which he accuses of being involved in his brother’s death

Jaroslaw Kaczynski is rallying Poles against Moscow

The hero of Solidarity says it would be a ‘disaster’ if Jaroslaw Kaczynski succeeds his dead brother as president

Two very good op-ed articles in the New York Times bring to this side of the Atlantic some of the debate that’s been stirred in Poland this week by the terrible plane crash in the Russian forest.

By one of the odd coincidences a capital city sometimes serves up, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra has long been scheduled to play a complete program of Polish music tomorrow night, Monday. The Polish embassy was already taking an active interest in the concert. I’ll be out of town but was already regretting the prospect of missing it. Now, given the tragic news from Smolensk, I thought I’d pass word of it on to you.

Paul Wells on the death of controversial Polish president Lech Kaczynski

Joe Biden travels to Warsaw and has the government there — which had been furious at the Obama government for amending (not cancelling) the Bush missile-defence plan without properly notifying its Polish and Czech allies — eating out of his hand. The U.S. vice-president even spent two hours chatting with Lech Kaczynski, the Polish president and a political opponent of the country’s parliamentary government. This kind of laying-on-of-hands shows, not for the first time, why Biden was a good veep pick; the fact that he had to travel to the region to address growing uncertainty there over American intentions for the region shows clumsiness at the White House. Still, a problem that can be fixed this easily is a rare luxury for any government.