Russian anger as Warsaw junction is named after Chechen rebel

Russia-Poland: Russia and Poland are at odds for the second time this month over Warsaw's alleged support for Chechen separatist rebels and Moscow's refusal to fully co-operate with an investigation into a second World War massacre of Polish officers by Soviet troops.

Moscow reacted with "indignation" to the decision of Warsaw City Council to name a crossroads in the Polish capital after Gen Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechnya's first post-communist rebel leader who was killed in a Russian rocket attack in 1996.

"It is difficult to consider this as anything other than an insult to the memory of Russian victims of terrorist acts in Moscow and other Russian cities, and an actual display of support for international terrorism," Russia's foreign ministry complained in a statement.

"We must acknowledge that this is the latest in a series of unfriendly steps towards our country."

Warsaw City Council member Pawel Turowski countered that it was vital to remember those "who are fighting for independence and basic human rights".

"Russia is just not able to get over the fact that Poland left its sphere of influence," he said.

Poland has irked Moscow recently by publicly condemning the killing by Russian forces of Gen Dudayev's successor as Chechen rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov, and by supporting Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" which brought to power the pro-EU candidate Viktor Yushchenko at the expense of Moscow's preferred man.

Parliamentarians in Warsaw hit back yesterday, urging Russia to condemn the 1940 massacre of Polish officers and other prisoners in the Ukrainian forest of Katyn.

"We are convinced that only the disclosure of the whole truth about the crime and condemnation of the perpetrators can heal the wounds and lead to good relations between Poland and the Russian Federation," said the parliamentary resolution, which was passed to mark the 65th anniversary of the mass execution.

Russia will not declassify many key documents relating to the massacre and, after blaming it for years on the Nazis, quietly closed its own investigation last year.