Russia and Poland seeking to improve ties

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his Polish counterpart Monday for talks on soothing strained relations between the two former Warsaw Pact allies. In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry cited Polish Foreign Minister Stephan Miller as saying that Warsaw is trying to improve ties, which have been unsettled ever since Poland joined NATO.

Relations were also uneasy due to Poland's intervention in last year's presidential elections in Ukraine, won by pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. Street violence against the children of Russian diplomats in Warsaw and Polish diplomats and a journalist in Moscow over the summer also strained ties between the two capitals, the AP reports.

The Foreign Ministry said that the two diplomats "agreed that the political atmosphere does not correspond to the current level of economic, humanitarian and cultural cooperation and runs counter (to) major trends in Europe's policy." A.M.