A plane crash in west Russia that killed...

The plane was taking a high-level delegation to Katyn to pay tribute to some 20,000 Polish officers killed by Soviet secret police during World War Two.

"Though it [the plane crash] was initially called a second Katyn, it is quite another matter. The communist state killed our officers and drove a wedge between us which we are still struggling to overcome. The recent tragedy, on the contrary, brought our states and peoples together," Marshal of the Senate Bogdan Borusewicz told the TVN24 channel.

Borusewicz said that those who think that relations between the two states will worsen are in a minority.

"Russians have changed a great deal," he said, praising the Russian reaction to the disaster and in particular statements by President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti)