Your post shows you take the media 100% at their word, especially considering there's only circumstantial evidence for most of your claims of Russia's wrongdoin

Your post shows you take the media 100% at their word, especially considering there's only circumstantial evidence for most of your claims of Russia's wrongdoing. Anyhow, I don't wish to debate those, they've been beat to death here and elsewhere. As for Russians' somewhat positive opinion about Stalin, it might have to do with the Great Patriotic War aka. World War 2, in which some 20% of citizens of the USSR were casualties. Think of the scale of their suffering, the threat they faced, and the fact that Stalin was their leader when they fought back and defeated Nazi Germany. The US has never in its whole history suffered catastrophes even close to what Russia has suffered multiple times in the last century. You have to remember that when you think about why Russia is the way it is today (it actually goes for most eastern slavs - my grandparents were Ukrainian and the slavic psyche you could say is a mix of stoicism and cynicism - probably due to constant conflict and catastrophe, invasions by enemies, brutal despots not to mention the harsh climate).