Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was ready to thousands of victims of World War II-era Katyn forest massacre that continues to strain relations with Poland.
About 20,000 Polish officers and other prisoners were executed by Soviet secret police in the Katyn forest in the Smolensk region in 1940 on charges they were enemies of the Soviet state.
Lavrov said in a radio interview Friday that Moscow was "ready to consider a perfectly legitimate request to declare these people innocent."
Several Polish families went to the European Court of Human Rights to prove the victims' innocence. Lavrov said Russia was anxious to work out a solution that would "satisfy families of the Polish officers and keep Russia within the legal framework."
(AP)