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Late Polish president's twin snubs memorial event in Russia

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Polish opposition party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said he would not attend memorial events in western Russia to mark six months since the deadly plane crash claimed the life of his twin brother.

Polish opposition party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said he would not attend memorial events in western Russia to mark six months since the deadly plane crash claimed the life of his twin brother.

Kaczynski, who fiercely criticized how Russian and Polish officials handled the investigation into the tragedy, said he would take part only in events which are "related to revealing the truth about the tragedy near Smolensk, but not in those aimed at concealing it."

"I will not go to Smolensk. On this day, I will take part in a mourning service in Poland," Kaczynski told a news conference in Prague.

The losing candidate in Poland's recent presidential elections, who heads the conservative Law and Justice party, earlier called on the Polish and Russian governments to assume full responsibility for the "completely abandoning" the investigation into the air disaster.

He also urged Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Bronislaw Komorowski to step down.

The worn-out Tu-154 with then Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other senior Polish officials onboard crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 people onboard. The high-ranking delegation was on its way to a commemoration ceremony of the 1940 Katyn massacre, in which more than 20,000 Poles were executed by Soviet forces.

Some 50 families of those killed in the crash are expected to attend the site of the tragedy on October 10.

WARSAW, October 6 (RIA Novosti)

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