Far from aggravating frictions in Russian-Polish relations, as initially feared, the plane crash that killed Poland’s president and a swath of the upper echelon of politicians and military leaders on Saturday appears to have achieved the opposite effect, encouraging kindness and understanding on both sides.

Boris Sokolov suggests in an essay posted on Grani.ru today, shows that Putin not only was unprepared to acknowledge many aspects of that horrific act but openly lied about it to bring pressure on Poland to stop raising the issue either bilaterally or internationally.

Russia's greater openness toward examining Soviet-era crimes such as the Katyn massacre could help normalise its relations with the EU's eastern flank.