Sad Pole's valuable analysis of the political background to this disaster holds lessons that will (we hope) improve flight safety. It goes right back to Tenerife and the intransigence of KLM's heavyweight captain. There too they tried to lay the blame on the Spanish ATC.
Its called Human Factors now. First Officer has a duty to point out any mistakes or oversights of the Captain in time, and strongly enough to persuade the self-important Captain that there IS a problem, right NOW! I would not feel comfortable as a passenger on any airline with a tradition of military type chain of command. And sadly, though I used to love a visit to the cockpit en route, the sterile cockpit rule is another lesson that was learned the hard way.
The junket to Smolensk by a planeload of politicians was in trouble from the very beginning, when the flight planning was sketchy, no alternates seriously considered, the management of the go-around attempt not properly understood. A nightmare from the beginning. Very very sad.