Immediately after the tragedy near Smolensk, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev instructed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to head the government commission on investigating the circumstances of the crash. In a matter of hours, Putin was at the site of the accident.
While still in Moscow, Putin called his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk, with whom he had visited Katyn just three days earlier, and conveyed his condolences to him and all Polish people. After several hours, they again spoke over the phone and decided to visit the crash site.
Having arrived in Smolensk, Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov and Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu headed directly to the plane's impact point where rescue teams were still gathering fragments and removing the bodies. After inspecting the site, Putin held a meeting of the operational headquarters.
"We must do everything in order to find out the reasons for this tragedy", he said. "We must do everything to help the relatives of the dead, those who will come to Moscow to identify the bodies."
The prime minister also emphasised that we should involve "our Polish friends" in the investigation and work in close contact with them.
Tusk arrived to the site of the tragedy after some time. Putin travelled with him to once again study the fragments of the plane. The prime ministers laid flowers on the ground and Putin embraced his colleague.
Together with members of the Russian and Polish delegations, many of whom had tears in their eyes, the prime ministers went to the headquarters where Russian senior officials informed Putin and Tusk about the course of the investigation and the process of identifying the bodies.
"This is primarily the tragedy of Poland and the Polish people", Putin said a bit later. "But this is our tragedy, too. We are praying together with you."
Midday yesterday, former Polish President Lech Kaczynski's coffin was flown from Smolensk to Warsaw. Putin headed the Russian delegation at the sad farewell ceremony.
Alexander Latyshev