“Putin said Stalin deserves statues in his honor as much as the late British lord protector, a ‘cunning fellow’ who “played a very ambiguous role in Britain’s history.”
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131219/185734707/Putin-Says-Stalin-No-Worse-Than-Cunning-Oliver-Cromwell.html
Putin knows he has to play to the new generation and the old population as he brings his nation along from it’s fall. So he’s simply being a statesman in his approach to satisfy all......it’s something he knows he has to ‘balance’ as the people adjust to the new Russia of today.
Unlike Obama who has shoved his “Hope and change” down everyones throat...like it or not. He’s a terrible politician let alone any resemblance to a Pres.