Thank you for sharing the informative article, Nateman.
It’s interesting because modern Russia has made such a point of using its defeat of Hitler in the Second World War as a moral rallying cry behind its latest geopolitical endeavors: including propping up anti-Semite Bashar Assad in Syria.
Even people in the West have bought the “Russia as hero” in the Middle East narrative, not understanding the recent historical context of the country’s involvement in the region and its contribution to the very Islamic terrorist threat Russia claims its at the forefront of fighting against. Vladimir Putin, is after all, former KGB.