Presidents Medvedev and Komorowski. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk

How has the Smolensk air disaster affected Polish - Russian relations? Has it opened a door to possibilities of healing old wounds, or has it opened them up once again and driven the two nations even further part?

“Despite all the problems the general balance [in relations] is positive,” Dmitry Babich from the Russia Profile magazine in Moscow told reporter Slawek Szefs.

“There is no problem with the Russian president coming to Warsaw for the first time in many years [as he did in December last year]. There is no problem about the Polish president coming to Moscow. Of course there is a minority in Poland and a small minority in Russia which is against good relations - but this minority looks more and more isolated,” he added.

Others would argue that this is a rose-tinted view of the fallout from the Smolensk disaster, which marks its one-year anniversary on 10 April.

Many in Poland, led by the twin brother of President Lech Kaczynski, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, see dark forces lying behind the tragedy and have accused the government of taking a too lenient line with Moscow over the subsequent investigation into its causes.

Opole University's Mikolaj Iwanow says the reaction to the tragedy must be put into the context of the lies the Soviet Union told for decades about who murdered 22,000 Polish officers during the 1940 Katyn massacres.

“[Because of Smolensk] Russia now understands the depth of the Polish tragedy that happened in the Katyn forest 70 years ago,” he says, adding that it is vital that the investigation by Moscow and Warsaw is as transparent as possible to calm fears that lies are being told once again. (pg)