Reflecting on Poland's Tragedy

April 11, 2010

Following the accident this weekend that killed Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and many other Polish leaders traveling with him, Watson Institute Director Michael Kennedy noted as encouraging the fact that both Russian and Polish reports on the plane crash have focused on sympathy and grief rather than politics. “If this were 20 years ago, people would be spreading stories about some sort of dastardly motive. I cannot imagine any foul play,” he told New York Times reporter Liz Robbins. Kennedy, a scholar of Poland, suggested that this tragedy could in fact bring Russia and Poland closer together.