"When he became President Putin disclosed: "when I was serving in the KGB in Germany, I always wore a cross under my shirt"
I highly doubt he ever wore a cross under his shirt while serving in the KGB. More than likely he's attempting to dupe the Russian Othodox community (both at home and abroad) into going along with his increasingly authoritarian plans. Besides, how on earth could he be a Christian on the one hand and raise a glass to atheistic Communist murderers like Lenin, Stalin, and Andropov on the other? They are mutually exclusive.
Our country was founded by folks who had the gumption to get on ships and cross oceans into the unknown, when such things had a 20% chance or higher of leading to death, to escape tyranny and injustice, so we have no idea how difficult it is for a country to change its leadership from absolute monarchy. Remember that Lenin lead the revolution against the Tsarist regime - which must have been somewhat less pleasant than the regime of Louis 14, 15, and 16, and in case you don't know how bad they were, read our founding fathers. They will tell you. Then Stalin had to deal with Hitler.
Don't get me wrong - I have no truck with Stalin or Lenin, but I'm not going to fault Putin for toasting the men who founded modern Russia.