Saturday, 6 February 2010
Kharkiv Oblast governor refuses to obey presidential decree
Kharkiv Oblast governor Arsen Avakov on Feb. 6 said he would not step down, pursuant to President Victor Yushchenko’s decree a day earlier. Avakov said that it would be impossible for him to obey Yushchenko’s order, calling the decree “illegal.”“Yushchenko today betrayed me. He has betrayed me many times. The Constitution of Ukraine says: ‘It is forbidden to obey criminal and unlawful orders and instructions. I think that Yushchenko’s order to sack me is illegal and therefore unlawful.'”
Thursday, 4 February 2010
“Hit Men Getting Ready To Seize Power In Ukraine” – Timoshenko
Ukrainian presidential candidate Yulia Timoshenko has accused her opponent Viktor Yanukovich of trying to seize power in the country and promised to stop him from winning the election by any means.
Propeller Yulia Timoshenko, the incumbent Prime Minister of Ukraine, maintains that holiday hotels and vacation retreats around the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, are filled up with militants ready to seize the reins of government.“Yanukovich is trying to do the same as in 2004. There are going to be cheats in the Central Electoral Commission and falsifications at ballot stations,” stated Timoshenko. “Once again there will be ballot box stuffing, with hundreds of thousands of false voting slips,” she told in the interview to 5 Channel TV, Ukraine.The interview has been published on the official website of the Ukrainian government.In her opinion, “since 2004, neither the methods nor the politics of [Viktor] Yanukovich have changed.”“Therefore, just as in 2004, we are going to be tough and tell him where to get off. Under no circumstances will he get power in Ukraine,” emphasized Timoshenko, in good time refusing to accept possibly unfavorable results of the national ballot.Being asked how she plans to fulfill her goal, Yulia Timoshenko said that “we need to act calmly, coldly and lawfully, using this possibility to convince people to unite and really defend Ukraine.” On Sunday during a telecast in Dnepropetrovsk, Timoshenko said that if she is to become the Ukraine’s president, her first step would be to withdraw the veto on the new budget code.”[Yushchenko’s] veto has been placed due to political reasons. Within a week we will also adopt a budget which the parliament has been considering since September 15 of the last year,” she said.The new budget code stipulates that a part of the local taxes will remain at the local level, Timoshenko said.”Every village, town and city will have their own development budget, which will consist of reliable income which will remain at the local level,” she said.“This will be a budget revolution which will make our villages and cities blossom," she added.Two candidates, acting Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko and the leader of the Party of Regions, Viktor Yanukovich, have made it to the second round of the presidential election in Ukraine, set for next
Propeller Yulia Timoshenko, the incumbent Prime Minister of Ukraine, maintains that holiday hotels and vacation retreats around the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, are filled up with militants ready to seize the reins of government.“Yanukovich is trying to do the same as in 2004. There are going to be cheats in the Central Electoral Commission and falsifications at ballot stations,” stated Timoshenko. “Once again there will be ballot box stuffing, with hundreds of thousands of false voting slips,” she told in the interview to 5 Channel TV, Ukraine.The interview has been published on the official website of the Ukrainian government.In her opinion, “since 2004, neither the methods nor the politics of [Viktor] Yanukovich have changed.”“Therefore, just as in 2004, we are going to be tough and tell him where to get off. Under no circumstances will he get power in Ukraine,” emphasized Timoshenko, in good time refusing to accept possibly unfavorable results of the national ballot.Being asked how she plans to fulfill her goal, Yulia Timoshenko said that “we need to act calmly, coldly and lawfully, using this possibility to convince people to unite and really defend Ukraine.” On Sunday during a telecast in Dnepropetrovsk, Timoshenko said that if she is to become the Ukraine’s president, her first step would be to withdraw the veto on the new budget code.”[Yushchenko’s] veto has been placed due to political reasons. Within a week we will also adopt a budget which the parliament has been considering since September 15 of the last year,” she said.The new budget code stipulates that a part of the local taxes will remain at the local level, Timoshenko said.”Every village, town and city will have their own development budget, which will consist of reliable income which will remain at the local level,” she said.“This will be a budget revolution which will make our villages and cities blossom," she added.Two candidates, acting Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko and the leader of the Party of Regions, Viktor Yanukovich, have made it to the second round of the presidential election in Ukraine, set for next
Lviv Aims For Ethics And Expertise
As the 46 million-strong population of Ukraine, browbeaten by political and economic crisis, moves towards the final leg of the presidential election, a recently established business school in the country’s western region may help revitalise a cynical business community.
Lviv Business School part of the Ukrainian Catholic University, was set up in 2008, in part with the support of three of the state’s business groups. In a country riddled with corruption, one aspect of LvBS’s mission is to inculcate Ukraine’s managers with an ethical approach to business.Petrol station operator Galnaftogaz, software development provider Softserve and women’s clothing manufacturer Trottola, are all regional employers in Ukraine hoping to expand their international footprint. They have given their support to the school and are also fielding members of the school’s advisory board.The companies believe that endemic corruption has hampered Ukraine’s progress. They say that putting their managers through an ethically focused school will not only give their executives a clean bill of health morally, but also makes sound business sense.With this in mind they approached the rector of UCU and former Harvard academic Father Borys Gudziak, (above left) with the suggestion of creating the business school to teach both their MBA hopefuls and ranks of middle managers requiring shorter courses. In the 2008/09 academic year, about 1,000 participants from the three companies and the wider community took part in short courses and seminars at LvBS.“We want businesses to be ethical and managers to be ethical and we want those who control firms to love our land and be patriots,” says Fr Gudziak.Chief executive of Galnaftogaz’s chain of 300 filling stations, Vitaliy Antonov, says a key factor in LvBS’s creation was the appointment of Sophia Opatska, then director of MBA programmes at Kyiv Mohyla Business School, in Kyiv, to run Galnaftogaz’s corporate university in 2005.“At that stage . . . we began to understand it would be much more effective for several business organisations to join forces and create a business school,” says Mr Antonov. Ms Opatska has since been appointed chief executive of LvBS.“LvBS represents . . .a particularly successful synthesis of business and ethics. At the moment, this is what everybody in the business community is interested in,” says Mr Antonov.As the business community in Ukraine becomes more mature, “it’s no longer enough to just live on your wits; you need a classical education”, says Taras Vervega, business development director at the fast-growing Lviv-based Softserve, which employs 1,200 people. Mr Vervega needs LvBS to train middle managers to run regional offices, and branches in Florida and Manila, in the Philippines.Trottola, with its 2,000 employees, has similar requirements. The company intends to create more jobs in Ukraine in sectors such as clothing design and marketing.“The Kyiv Mohyla school is number one in Ukraine, but the fees are too high and not everybody can afford to go there,” says Yaroslav Rushchyshyn, Trottola’s chief executive.“A business school is not just about an MBA, it’s about training people in the local area and the business mentality in Kyiv is very different from that in western Ukraine. Our focus on ethics differentiates us hugely from the competition.”Business education is enjoying a surge of popularity in Ukraine, with approximately 30 business schools in the country. However, according to Alex Frishberg, senior partner of Kyiv-based law firm Frishberg & Partners, the most sought after management education is US or English.Kyiv-based, foreign-owned consulting firms such as Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and Bain typically retain Ukrainian graduates with Harvard or Yale MBA degrees, he adds.The LvBS EMBA programme currently has 15 students and is taught by Ukrainian and visiting lecturers, including business specialists from companies such as Kraft Foods and Ernst & Young and academics from Moscow State University and the University of Michigan.It is the ethical dimension of the school that Fr Gudziak, believes will help senior managers focus on legal and morally acceptable solutions to their problems early in their careers. But he does not expect changes to happen overnight.“Many people in Ukraine are trying to do something about corruption. But it’s a systemic problem and it’s not easy to change the system,” he says.
Lviv Business School part of the Ukrainian Catholic University, was set up in 2008, in part with the support of three of the state’s business groups. In a country riddled with corruption, one aspect of LvBS’s mission is to inculcate Ukraine’s managers with an ethical approach to business.Petrol station operator Galnaftogaz, software development provider Softserve and women’s clothing manufacturer Trottola, are all regional employers in Ukraine hoping to expand their international footprint. They have given their support to the school and are also fielding members of the school’s advisory board.The companies believe that endemic corruption has hampered Ukraine’s progress. They say that putting their managers through an ethically focused school will not only give their executives a clean bill of health morally, but also makes sound business sense.With this in mind they approached the rector of UCU and former Harvard academic Father Borys Gudziak, (above left) with the suggestion of creating the business school to teach both their MBA hopefuls and ranks of middle managers requiring shorter courses. In the 2008/09 academic year, about 1,000 participants from the three companies and the wider community took part in short courses and seminars at LvBS.“We want businesses to be ethical and managers to be ethical and we want those who control firms to love our land and be patriots,” says Fr Gudziak.Chief executive of Galnaftogaz’s chain of 300 filling stations, Vitaliy Antonov, says a key factor in LvBS’s creation was the appointment of Sophia Opatska, then director of MBA programmes at Kyiv Mohyla Business School, in Kyiv, to run Galnaftogaz’s corporate university in 2005.“At that stage . . . we began to understand it would be much more effective for several business organisations to join forces and create a business school,” says Mr Antonov. Ms Opatska has since been appointed chief executive of LvBS.“LvBS represents . . .a particularly successful synthesis of business and ethics. At the moment, this is what everybody in the business community is interested in,” says Mr Antonov.As the business community in Ukraine becomes more mature, “it’s no longer enough to just live on your wits; you need a classical education”, says Taras Vervega, business development director at the fast-growing Lviv-based Softserve, which employs 1,200 people. Mr Vervega needs LvBS to train middle managers to run regional offices, and branches in Florida and Manila, in the Philippines.Trottola, with its 2,000 employees, has similar requirements. The company intends to create more jobs in Ukraine in sectors such as clothing design and marketing.“The Kyiv Mohyla school is number one in Ukraine, but the fees are too high and not everybody can afford to go there,” says Yaroslav Rushchyshyn, Trottola’s chief executive.“A business school is not just about an MBA, it’s about training people in the local area and the business mentality in Kyiv is very different from that in western Ukraine. Our focus on ethics differentiates us hugely from the competition.”Business education is enjoying a surge of popularity in Ukraine, with approximately 30 business schools in the country. However, according to Alex Frishberg, senior partner of Kyiv-based law firm Frishberg & Partners, the most sought after management education is US or English.Kyiv-based, foreign-owned consulting firms such as Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and Bain typically retain Ukrainian graduates with Harvard or Yale MBA degrees, he adds.The LvBS EMBA programme currently has 15 students and is taught by Ukrainian and visiting lecturers, including business specialists from companies such as Kraft Foods and Ernst & Young and academics from Moscow State University and the University of Michigan.It is the ethical dimension of the school that Fr Gudziak, believes will help senior managers focus on legal and morally acceptable solutions to their problems early in their careers. But he does not expect changes to happen overnight.“Many people in Ukraine are trying to do something about corruption. But it’s a systemic problem and it’s not easy to change the system,” he says.
Worker injured in St. Petersburg rail blast
An explosion on the railway near St. Petersburg injured a worker early on Tuesday morning and caused delays in the rail service.
A bomb, thought to contain 200 to 400 grams of TNT, went off just after 4 a.m. on the main line between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The incident comes in the wake of a Nov. 27 bomb hit the Nevsky Express on the same route. In that attack, 28 people died and more than 90 were injured.
On Tuesday, the device went off under the wheels of a railway carriage, injuring a guard's leg, police said. The man was hospitalised.
Police are investigating what they suspect to be a terrorist attack.
A bomb, thought to contain 200 to 400 grams of TNT, went off just after 4 a.m. on the main line between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The incident comes in the wake of a Nov. 27 bomb hit the Nevsky Express on the same route. In that attack, 28 people died and more than 90 were injured.
On Tuesday, the device went off under the wheels of a railway carriage, injuring a guard's leg, police said. The man was hospitalised.
Police are investigating what they suspect to be a terrorist attack.
Russia’s whistle-blowers in peril
Blowing the whistle on corruption and malpractice inside the Russian police force can be a dicey matter.One officer who did - Olga Shvachko, the head of Moscow's Basmanny precinct inquest unit - emerged from the experience comparatively unscathed.
In late 2008, she filed an official complaint with her superiors when she discovered some 40 fabricated criminal cases. Yet instead of her complaint being investigated, she was disciplined and summarily evicted from her office, which was sealed up, according to the police trade union that took up her case.
Eventually, some months later, the department dropped its action against her, fearing a lawsuit. But when her belongings were returned, 50,000 roubles ($1,700) had gone missing from her office.
Shvachko's case is quite normal, said Mikhail Pashkin, chairman of the Moscow police trade union - except that the whistle-blowing officer more often than not ends up in jail.
"If an officer wants to live by the law, they try to get rid of him," said Pashkin. "Or if an Interior Ministry officer is facing someone who has more money than he does - then he will get prosecuted for bribe-taking."
"They jailed a [certain] officer for 11 years over $400 that they found in the corridor. He spent six years in prison," Pashkin said. "The problem was, he [started investigating] a furniture store that was [protected] by a different structure. He's a lawyer now, and a member of our union. We tried to defend him."
Pashkin describes these as "normal cases. We try to fight them, but it's useless."
The issue of police whistle-blowing came to light most spectacularly in November, when Major Alexei Dymovsky, from Novorossiisk, accused his superiors of corruption and falsifying evidence in a YouTube video that became an instant hit with Russian Internet users.
A month later, Dymovsky was himself under investigation - and last week he was arrested on fraud charges.For such officers, the result of airing your department's dirty laundry so publicly is normally jail, Pashkin said.
The Dymovsky case came after a series of scandals rocked the country's police and justice system last year. Most notably, in April, a police precinct chief, Denis Yesyukov, killed two people and wounded several others at a Moscow supermarket in a drunken rampage. In November, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital, Sergei Magnitsky, died in custody amid accusations of maltreatment in prison.
These and several other high-profile cases prompted President Dmitry Medvedev in late December to launch a wholesale reform of the country's police force and justice system - including a 20 per cent cut in the number of Interior Ministry officers by 2012.
The issue of whistle-blowing in Russia is complicated by it being linked irrevocably with Soviet-style informing on one's colleagues, friends or even family. The result then - the Gulag or worse - means that in the popular imagination the very idea of doing a public service by exposing wrongdoing remains stigmatised in the same way.
And as the phrase "whistle-blower" doesn't exist in any neutral or positive sense in the Russian language, it is hardly possible to monitor nationwide trends.
Anti-corruption activists interviewed for this article pointed to a simple rule of thumb: you'll have problems if you cross paths with corrupt interests. In law enforcement, it seems, that is a particularly difficult thing to avoid.
Natalya Taubina, director of Public Verdict, an NGO that helps victims of police abuse, told the story of a traffic cop who was hounded out of his job by his superiors simply because his immediate supervisor had a conflict with his own boss, who happened to be the first officer's uncle. As a result of the family feud, the officer was accused by his immediate supervisor of taking a choice cut of beef worth 1,900 rubles ($65) as a bribe, and fired from his post.
An activist who aided Dymovsky in setting up an anti-corruption movement, called White Ribbon, told of Grigory Chekalin, a former deputy prosecutor of the Chita region, who has been facing two criminal cases after he refused to fabricate a criminal case against two people he believed were innocent.
"He lives in Moscow and keeps a low profile now," said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If he returns to Chita they'll take him down."
As part of President Medvedev's reform, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev suggested that the police system of quotas for solving crimes might be abolished in the future, replaced instead with civilian feedback to motivate officers.
"In [assessing] the work of officers, we will try to depart from the system of quotas as much as possible," Nurgaliyev was quoted as telling the Association of Lawyers last month. "The chief criteria will be quality."
According to Nurgaliyev's order, which outlines a new assessment system but does not abolish quotas, police departments will be required to take public opinion into account when assessing their work.
But Pashkin, the police union leader, doubted things would change.
"Look at the decree. There's a clause that department heads can determine the factors themselves. He can tell his underlings to do whatever he wants them to do."
Asked why this was happening despite Medvedev's obvious political will for reform, he said, "The system is out of control. The bottom doesn't listen to the top. Medvedev says that bosses shouldn't fear discussion, shouldn't be afraid of meeting with their critics. We invited Moscow police chiefs to our conference, but no one came. They are afraid, and they have nothing to say. And they do not carry out the decrees of the president."
Kirill Kabanov, head of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, said that corrupt police officers would "punish severely... anyone who speaks out. They will find a way to prove that he is nobody."
Regarding Dymovsky, Interior Ministry officials and his supporters have very different versions of what his case is about.After his video came out on Nov. 6, the police officers he implicated in his complaint filed a lawsuit for slander.
Police officials say that Dymovsky was only trying to cover himself with his YouTube video. His superiors began looking into his record in May 2009, as he was rarely showing up to work, police Lieutenant-General Yury Draguntsov, head of the Interior Ministry's security department, told a news conference in December.
But Sergei Gubar, Dymovsky's lawyer, denied this. "All those checks started after his video. He is being prosecuted for carrying out the orders of his superiors. All operative work in the Interior Ministry is based on this principle."
Meanwhile, Dymovsky's alleged fraud "consisted of embezzling 23,000 roubles" ($800) over the course of several months, Dymovsky's lawyer, said by telephone.
For Pashkin, however, the Dymovsky case is merely part of a bigger picture. "Dymovsky did not say anything new. It's all happened before. We've been talking about this kind of stuff for the last 10 years. It's just that he found a new medium, a video."
In late 2008, she filed an official complaint with her superiors when she discovered some 40 fabricated criminal cases. Yet instead of her complaint being investigated, she was disciplined and summarily evicted from her office, which was sealed up, according to the police trade union that took up her case.
Eventually, some months later, the department dropped its action against her, fearing a lawsuit. But when her belongings were returned, 50,000 roubles ($1,700) had gone missing from her office.
Shvachko's case is quite normal, said Mikhail Pashkin, chairman of the Moscow police trade union - except that the whistle-blowing officer more often than not ends up in jail.
"If an officer wants to live by the law, they try to get rid of him," said Pashkin. "Or if an Interior Ministry officer is facing someone who has more money than he does - then he will get prosecuted for bribe-taking."
"They jailed a [certain] officer for 11 years over $400 that they found in the corridor. He spent six years in prison," Pashkin said. "The problem was, he [started investigating] a furniture store that was [protected] by a different structure. He's a lawyer now, and a member of our union. We tried to defend him."
Pashkin describes these as "normal cases. We try to fight them, but it's useless."
The issue of police whistle-blowing came to light most spectacularly in November, when Major Alexei Dymovsky, from Novorossiisk, accused his superiors of corruption and falsifying evidence in a YouTube video that became an instant hit with Russian Internet users.
A month later, Dymovsky was himself under investigation - and last week he was arrested on fraud charges.For such officers, the result of airing your department's dirty laundry so publicly is normally jail, Pashkin said.
The Dymovsky case came after a series of scandals rocked the country's police and justice system last year. Most notably, in April, a police precinct chief, Denis Yesyukov, killed two people and wounded several others at a Moscow supermarket in a drunken rampage. In November, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital, Sergei Magnitsky, died in custody amid accusations of maltreatment in prison.
These and several other high-profile cases prompted President Dmitry Medvedev in late December to launch a wholesale reform of the country's police force and justice system - including a 20 per cent cut in the number of Interior Ministry officers by 2012.
The issue of whistle-blowing in Russia is complicated by it being linked irrevocably with Soviet-style informing on one's colleagues, friends or even family. The result then - the Gulag or worse - means that in the popular imagination the very idea of doing a public service by exposing wrongdoing remains stigmatised in the same way.
And as the phrase "whistle-blower" doesn't exist in any neutral or positive sense in the Russian language, it is hardly possible to monitor nationwide trends.
Anti-corruption activists interviewed for this article pointed to a simple rule of thumb: you'll have problems if you cross paths with corrupt interests. In law enforcement, it seems, that is a particularly difficult thing to avoid.
Natalya Taubina, director of Public Verdict, an NGO that helps victims of police abuse, told the story of a traffic cop who was hounded out of his job by his superiors simply because his immediate supervisor had a conflict with his own boss, who happened to be the first officer's uncle. As a result of the family feud, the officer was accused by his immediate supervisor of taking a choice cut of beef worth 1,900 rubles ($65) as a bribe, and fired from his post.
An activist who aided Dymovsky in setting up an anti-corruption movement, called White Ribbon, told of Grigory Chekalin, a former deputy prosecutor of the Chita region, who has been facing two criminal cases after he refused to fabricate a criminal case against two people he believed were innocent.
"He lives in Moscow and keeps a low profile now," said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If he returns to Chita they'll take him down."
As part of President Medvedev's reform, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev suggested that the police system of quotas for solving crimes might be abolished in the future, replaced instead with civilian feedback to motivate officers.
"In [assessing] the work of officers, we will try to depart from the system of quotas as much as possible," Nurgaliyev was quoted as telling the Association of Lawyers last month. "The chief criteria will be quality."
According to Nurgaliyev's order, which outlines a new assessment system but does not abolish quotas, police departments will be required to take public opinion into account when assessing their work.
But Pashkin, the police union leader, doubted things would change.
"Look at the decree. There's a clause that department heads can determine the factors themselves. He can tell his underlings to do whatever he wants them to do."
Asked why this was happening despite Medvedev's obvious political will for reform, he said, "The system is out of control. The bottom doesn't listen to the top. Medvedev says that bosses shouldn't fear discussion, shouldn't be afraid of meeting with their critics. We invited Moscow police chiefs to our conference, but no one came. They are afraid, and they have nothing to say. And they do not carry out the decrees of the president."
Kirill Kabanov, head of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, said that corrupt police officers would "punish severely... anyone who speaks out. They will find a way to prove that he is nobody."
Regarding Dymovsky, Interior Ministry officials and his supporters have very different versions of what his case is about.After his video came out on Nov. 6, the police officers he implicated in his complaint filed a lawsuit for slander.
Police officials say that Dymovsky was only trying to cover himself with his YouTube video. His superiors began looking into his record in May 2009, as he was rarely showing up to work, police Lieutenant-General Yury Draguntsov, head of the Interior Ministry's security department, told a news conference in December.
But Sergei Gubar, Dymovsky's lawyer, denied this. "All those checks started after his video. He is being prosecuted for carrying out the orders of his superiors. All operative work in the Interior Ministry is based on this principle."
Meanwhile, Dymovsky's alleged fraud "consisted of embezzling 23,000 roubles" ($800) over the course of several months, Dymovsky's lawyer, said by telephone.
For Pashkin, however, the Dymovsky case is merely part of a bigger picture. "Dymovsky did not say anything new. It's all happened before. We've been talking about this kind of stuff for the last 10 years. It's just that he found a new medium, a video."
Russia's Putin invites Tusk to Katyn massacre event
Russian PM Vladimir Putin has invited his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, to a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.
It is the first Russian ceremony to mark the murdering by Soviet secret police of more than 20,000 Polish prisoners of war in April 1940.
The invitation is being hailed in Poland as a breakthrough that could lead to improved bilateral ties.
Mr Putin said he understood the significance of the massacre to Poles.
He told Mr Tusk in a telephone call that their joint appearance at the ceremony in April would be an important symbolic gesture, said a Polish government spokesman.
A former Polish foreign minister, Adam Rotfeld, who now heads a committee tackling difficult issues between the two countries, hailed Mr Putin's invitation as an important event in the normalisation of Polish-Russian relations.
The mass execution of Polish army and police officers in the forests of Katyn and other sites has long been one of the most difficult issues between the two countries.
For half a century the Soviet Union blamed the killings on the Nazis.
In 1990, Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev finally admitted Soviet responsibility.
More recently, Moscow's refusal to declassify the archives, and a Russian court ruling that the massacre did not warrant the term genocide, has angered many in Poland.
It is the first Russian ceremony to mark the murdering by Soviet secret police of more than 20,000 Polish prisoners of war in April 1940.
The invitation is being hailed in Poland as a breakthrough that could lead to improved bilateral ties.
Mr Putin said he understood the significance of the massacre to Poles.
He told Mr Tusk in a telephone call that their joint appearance at the ceremony in April would be an important symbolic gesture, said a Polish government spokesman.
A former Polish foreign minister, Adam Rotfeld, who now heads a committee tackling difficult issues between the two countries, hailed Mr Putin's invitation as an important event in the normalisation of Polish-Russian relations.
The mass execution of Polish army and police officers in the forests of Katyn and other sites has long been one of the most difficult issues between the two countries.
For half a century the Soviet Union blamed the killings on the Nazis.
In 1990, Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev finally admitted Soviet responsibility.
More recently, Moscow's refusal to declassify the archives, and a Russian court ruling that the massacre did not warrant the term genocide, has angered many in Poland.
Ukraine's Yushchenko signs election law change
Outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko has signed into law a change in Ukraine's electoral legislation three days before the vote on his successor.
The amendment allows vote-counting at polling stations across Ukraine to go ahead whether or not representatives of both candidates are present.
PM Yulia Tymoshenko said the change would help supporters of her opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, to commit fraud.
Mr Yanukovych said his rival's complaints were a sign of weakness.
Sunday's vote is a run-off, between the winner and runner-up of the first round on 17 January. President Yushchenko was ejected in the first round.
Mrs Tymoshenko has called on her supporters to take to the streets if she is defeated in Sunday's poll, saying the protests could be larger than those of 2004's Orange Revolution, which swept Mr Yushchenko to power.
"If we are unable to guarantee the honest expression of the people's will and honest results, we will mobilise the people," said Mrs Tymoshenko in Kiev on Thursday.
"I ask you not to allow Yanukovych to rape our democracy, our election and our country!"
But former Prime Minister Mr Yanukovych, who finished 10% ahead of his rival in a first round of voting last month, said her threat was merely an act of desperation.
"This is a sign of her weakness and an indication that she is losing," he said during a penultimate day's campaigning in central Ukraine.
"If people go (to the protests), it will just be a handful, lovers of the same kind of meals that Tymoshenko loves to cook - filth, lies and slander."
The amendment allows vote-counting at polling stations across Ukraine to go ahead whether or not representatives of both candidates are present.
PM Yulia Tymoshenko said the change would help supporters of her opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, to commit fraud.
Mr Yanukovych said his rival's complaints were a sign of weakness.
Sunday's vote is a run-off, between the winner and runner-up of the first round on 17 January. President Yushchenko was ejected in the first round.
Mrs Tymoshenko has called on her supporters to take to the streets if she is defeated in Sunday's poll, saying the protests could be larger than those of 2004's Orange Revolution, which swept Mr Yushchenko to power.
"If we are unable to guarantee the honest expression of the people's will and honest results, we will mobilise the people," said Mrs Tymoshenko in Kiev on Thursday.
"I ask you not to allow Yanukovych to rape our democracy, our election and our country!"
But former Prime Minister Mr Yanukovych, who finished 10% ahead of his rival in a first round of voting last month, said her threat was merely an act of desperation.
"This is a sign of her weakness and an indication that she is losing," he said during a penultimate day's campaigning in central Ukraine.
"If people go (to the protests), it will just be a handful, lovers of the same kind of meals that Tymoshenko loves to cook - filth, lies and slander."
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