For første gang i sine åtte år ved makten har Vladimir Putin deltatt i en minnemarkering for Stalins ofre. Det skjedde i en gudstjeneste i Moskva tirsdag, og en markering på Butovo-skytefeltet utenfor Moskva, der 20.000 politiske fiender ble skutt.

Kritikerne er skeptiske til Putins oppriktighet når han først nå stiller opp. De ser valgmotiver.

Putin snakket om faren for at store ideer får overtaket og går på bekostning av fundamentale verdier:

Later, Putin looked at a paneled explanation of the site, complete with a day-by-day tally of the killings and photographs of gaunt and haggard victims.

«These tragedies have occurred in history not just once. And they always occurred when ideals that seemed attractive at first glance but then turned out to be empty were placed above basic values: human life, rights and freedom. For us, this was a particular tragedy because its scope was colossal,» Putin told reporters.

Men Putin har ellers forsøkt å tone ned skrekkbildet av Stalin, og relativisert det, for å øke russernes fedrelandskjærlighet. Det er ikke lenger siden enn juni at han sa noe helt annet om Stalinas utrenskninger:

In June, he told history teachers that although the 1937 mass slaughter was one of the most notorious episodes of the Stalin era, no one should try to make Russia feel guilty about it because «in other countries even worse things happened.»

Den russiske Helsingforskomiteen regner nå med at landet igjen har politiske fanger.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet-era dissident who heads the Moscow Helsinki Group, said on Ekho Moskvy radio that Putin’s visit to Butovo was obviously part of the election campaign. She said his government now holds some 100 political prisoners who she charged were jailed on fabricated charges of espionage and terrorism and about 30 more targeted for actual political activity.

Putin commemorates Stalin purge victims