WARSAW &mdash Russia's ambassador in Poland said Thursday that a political decision has been made to declare the more than 20,000 Polish officers and others killed in 1940 by Soviet secret police innocent of any crimes against the Soviet Union.
The step by Russia's government would help solve an issue that has soured relations between Warsaw and Moscow for decades.
Ambassador Alexander Alexeyev said lawyers in Russia are seeking to determine the best way to comply with Russian and Polish law to declare the victims of the so-called Katyn massacre innocent. They were executed on fabricated charges of being enemies to the Soviet state.
The Soviets falsely blamed the Katyn massacre on the Nazis for years, but in November, Russia's lower house of parliament said the killings were ordered by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
(AP)
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