POTATO SPLASH: Polish President Lech Kaczynski 'in plane crash'

[Viking]

Norwegian News is reporting that Vladimir Putin will personally lead the Accident Inquiry. I think this is russian for "lol we killed UR president whachagonnadoabout it? kthnxby"

[Alexandru H.]

A Russian involvement is quite unlikely.

[CountDeMoney]

A Russian involvement is quite unlikely.

A planeload of the Polish government on the way to rub Katyn in their faces?  I wouldn't put it past any of those fuckers.  Remember, these Russians whack journalists, for fuck's sake.

[CountDeMoney]

Heh, "Potato Splash".  I wonder if that was the FSB code name for the operation.

TATER DOWN TATER DOWN

[Alexandru H.]

A Russian involvement is quite unlikely.

A planeload of the Polish government on the way to rub Katyn in their faces?  I wouldn't put it past any of those fuckers.  Remember, these Russians whack journalists, for fuck's sake.

Too much exposure: Russian plane, Russian airspace, Russian airport, Russian massacre... too obvious... Besides, Putin already condemned the Katyn tragedy several days ago in a historical speech.

Lech was anti-russian but not pro-west. He actually was the main force behind the refusal to host the NATO anti-air shield. From the point of view of a Russian official, he was a solid choice for a country of such importance as Poland. I can blame the ruskies of many things, but I can't see how they would think that this would be a perfect chance for a political assasination.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Was this a Polish government plane?

Yeah. It was the Presidential plane.

I guess they forgot to wind up the rubber band enough times.

[Martinus]

 

[Sahib]

Too much exposure: Russian plane, Russian airspace, Russian airport, Russian massacre... too obvious... Besides, Putin already condemned the Katyn tragedy several days ago in a historical speech.

Lech was anti-russian but not pro-west. He actually was the main force behind the refusal to host the NATO anti-air shield. From the point of view of a Russian official, he was a solid choice for a country of such importance as Poland. I can blame the ruskies of many things, but I can't see how they would think that this would be a perfect chance for a political assasination.

You got it wrong, he was very pro-shield and generally extremely anti-Russian.

[Martinus]

Obituary: Lech Kaczynski
Polish President Lech Kaczynski was a controversial figure on the world stage but his right-wing stance on many issues found ready reception among many Poles, especially traditionalist and rural voters.

Throughout his political career, he was not afraid to appeal to populist sentiments. As mayor of Warsaw, he twice banned gay parades and spoke in support of reintroducing the death penalty.

He was elected as Poland's president in 2005 as candidate of the Law and Justice Party.

During the campaign, Mr Kaczynski insisted Poles needed a president who would stand up for their interests.

He said post-communist Poland, often called the "Third Republic", needed radical transformation into a "Fourth Republic", based on social justice and a strong state.

The Law and Justice party, which stresses the traditional values of the Roman Catholic Church, was founded by Mr Kaczynski and his twin brother, Jaroslaw, in 2001.

But they had already played an important role in shaping Poland's post-Communist identity. In the 1990 presidential election, they were key players in securing the victory of the Solidarity leader Lech Walesa.

Kaczynskis in charge

Lech Kaczynski, who was born in 1949, had followed his brother into the anti-government movement in the late 1970s and served as an adviser to the strike committee at the Gdansk shipyard during the August 1980 Solidarity-led protests.

But the brothers found themselves outside mainstream politics in the early 1990s after falling out with President Walesa.

LECH KACZYNSKI
Born in Warsaw in 1949
Arrested under martial law in 1981
Elected Warsaw Mayor in 2002
Elected president in October 2005
The relationship between the one-time allies in the fight against Communism soured further in recent years. In 2009, Mr Walesa sued President Kaczynski for alleging that he had actually spied for the Communist secret service in the 1970s.

In the wake of the 2005 election, Poland had two Kaczynskis holding the reins of power - Lech as president and, from 2006, Jaroslaw as prime minister.

Since 2007, however, President Kaczynski had to work with Donald Tusk, who was his defeated rival in the presidential poll two years earlier.

He asked Mr Tusk to form a government after the victory of his centre-right Civic Platform in elections in October 2007.

Under the Polish constitution, the president has fewer powers than the prime minister, but has a significant say in foreign policy.

It was at time a difficult relationship. Mr Kaczynski was a critic of Mr Tusk's liberal economic policies and often vetoed the government's bills.

In retrospect, the Kaczynski twins were perhaps destined to be prominent - on whatever stage. At the age of 12, they shot to fame as stars in the 1962 film "Two boys who stole the moon".

Their father was a World War II resistance fighter and it was from his tales of Polish heroism that Mr Kaczynski developed his keen sense of Polish nationalism.

Mr Kaczynski, 60, was married with one daughter.

Not my kind of President, but still would have preferred to see him voted out instead of go like this. Despite this I have had a lot of sympathy for him - his bio is not unlike that of my parents, and living most of your life under communism fucks people up.

[Alexandru H.]

Too much exposure: Russian plane, Russian airspace, Russian airport, Russian massacre... too obvious... Besides, Putin already condemned the Katyn tragedy several days ago in a historical speech.

Lech was anti-russian but not pro-west. He actually was the main force behind the refusal to host the NATO anti-air shield. From the point of view of a Russian official, he was a solid choice for a country of such importance as Poland. I can blame the ruskies of many things, but I can't see how they would think that this would be a perfect chance for a political assasination.

You got it wrong, he was very pro-shield and generally extremely anti-Russian.

Yeah, my bad... so who was anti-shield in Poland?

[PJL]

I predict his twin will be the next elected president of Poland riding on a wave of sympathy for the old president and his party.

[Alexandru H.]

Edit: during our US shield negotiations a few anti-shield papers explained that we're US slaves and that Poland, through its president, is not keen on seeing the US place an aerial umbrella all over the Polish soil. So they lied... 

[Alexandru H.]

What if the airplane Lech was actually his brother? Lech is responsible for the accident as this tragedy would make him a shoe-in for the next elections (riding on popular support), plus he got rid of his brother and wife, while managing to create a public turmoil in Poland and the world regarding the Katyn deaths.

[Martinus]

I predict his twin will be the next elected president of Poland riding on a wave of sympathy for the old president and his party.

Highly unlikely.

First of all, despite the dead twin being widely disliked, he was still considered the "better twin" of the two - Jaroslaw is much more divisive and obnoxious.

Second, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually had a breakdown over this.

I think the best political move for PiS would be for Jaroslaw to "retire" as grief-stricken and put some rare popular politician from his party (I can only think of Ziobro, who was the "tough sheriff" attorney general in his government) as a Presidential candidate.

[Agelastus]

OK, I know this is important (and for Poland, tragic) news, but do we really have to have three threads related to it?