Russia said Thursday that it would start inspections of meat products exported from Poland to Russia, signaling the beginning of a thaw in relations with the new Civic Platform government in Warsaw after two years of acrimony under the coalition ousted by voters last month. Russia imposed a ban on meat and other agricultural imports from Poland in 2005, saying that they had failed to meet European Union health standards. Despite attempts by the European Commission and several of the bloc`s member states to break the deadlock, Russia maintained its ban. But in what Polish legislators described Thursday as a "good gesture," Russia`s food safety agency said that inspections in Poland could start as early as next week. Before the embargo was imposed, Poland earned about $560 million a year from farm sales to Russia, about 5 percent of its total exports. Radek Sikorski, a leading member of Civic Platform and seen by many as likely to be the next foreign minister, said by telephone that if Russia lifted the embargo, "it would be a very good gesture. The new government would welcome it. It is an opportunity for our Russian neighbors to turn the page in the relationship." Russia`s decision to maintain the meat ban was one of the reasons Poland vetoed a new trade and partnership agreement the EU had been hoping to sign with Russia this year. Despite Poland`s often difficult relations with Brussels under former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whose Law and Justice party was defeated last month, the 27-member bloc showed surprising solidarity in defending Poland. The departing Polish foreign minister, Anna Fotyga, had threatened last month during an EU-Russia summit meeting in Portugal to bar Russia`s entry into the World Trade Organization if it did not end the embargo. The meat ban, however, is just one of several disputes between Warsaw and Moscow. The biggest and most controversial is the plan by the United States to deploy part of its anti-ballistic- missile shield on Polish territory. Donald Tusk, the prime minister-designate and leader of Civic Platform, and his coalition partner, the Polish Peasants Party, intend to press ahead with deploying the interceptors. Unlike Law and Justice, however, Civic Platform plans a much tougher approach in its negotiations with Washington. These would range from discussing the financial costs and safety measures of the system to obtaining assurances that the United States would provide a security umbrella for Poland, possibly by providing Patriot missiles, legislators said.