Russia’s soft spot for Joe

Russia’s soft spot for Joe

Los Angeles Times: To many of those who remember Ronald Reagan’s presidency, his latter-day popularity is a little puzzling.

The Republican icon, who like George W. Bush produced skyrocketing federal deficits by advocating tax cuts even as he hiked military spending and -- also like Bush -- promoted laissez-faire regulatory policies that culminated in a home-loan crisis, is today so widely admired that even Democrats such as President Obama frequently praise him.

But if Americans’ perceptions of Reagan are puzzling, Russians’ perceptions of Josef Stalin are downright bizarre.

Last Monday, hundreds of admirers of the former Soviet leader lined up in Moscow’s Red Square to lay wreaths at his grave, in honor of the 130th anniversary of his birth.

Ivan Melnikov of Russia’s Communist Party, the deputy parliament speaker, wrote on his party’s Web site, “We would very much like for any discussion of the mistakes of the Stalin epoch to be silenced today, so that people can reflect on Stalin’s personality as a creator, a thinker and a patriot.”

Not to mention a genocidal maniac. The “mistakes” Melnikov would prefer not to discuss include a treacherous pact to divide Europe with Adolf Hitler, as well as bloody purges and engineered famines that killed tens of millions of Russians and rank high among the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

Stalin’s cult of personality has been strengthening for nearly a decade, with open support from the Kremlin. Almost a third of Russians in a recent poll said the country needs a leader like him today.