Respectful Russians
Russia coach Dick Advocaat and the country's soccer chief laid a wreath in Warsaw on Sunday to commemorate the victims of a 2010 plane crash in an attempt to defuse tensions before Russia's Euro 2012 game with Poland next week.
The complicated relationship between the two neighbours because of history, energy and security disputes, has been strained further following the air disaster near Smolensk in western Russia that killed Poland President Lech Kaczynski.
Advocaat, president of the Russian Football Association (RFS) Sergei Fursenko and Russia's ambassador to Warsaw made the short walk from their hotel to the Presidential Palace to lay the wreath, while a group of mostly elderly protesters bearing pictures of Kaczynski prayed nearby.
"We wanted to commemorate those who were killed. It was also a huge tragedy for Russia when it happened," said Fursenko.
"As soon as we came we thought of laying a wreath to honour the people who died."
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