Moscow has not received official notice from President Lech Kaczynski that he will be attending a ceremony to commemorate the 1940 Katyn massacre, says Russian Foreign Ministry.

Spokesman Andrei Niestierienko also said, Thursday. that the Russian side knows of President Kaczynski’s plans to come to Katyn only from media reports.

“Official information from the Polish side has not yet come through to us,” Niestierienko said. o,

It was announced last week that though President Kaczynski would not be attending the ceremony on April 7 with prime ministers Tusk and Putin, Kaczynski would be travelling to the Katyn site three days later with a group of Polish veterans.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the goal of the ceremony that Tusk and Putin will participate in is a, "joint commemoration remembering that both Russians and Poles were victims of totalitarian regimes in the twentieth century; and to raise awareness among the younger generation about the tragic side of a common past linking the peoples of our two countries."

Over 20,000 Polish officers were murdered by the NKVD in 1940 in what Poland believes was an act of genocide. (pg)

Source: PAP