Putin commemorates victims of Soviet repression

Russian President Vladimir Putin, widely accused of undermining Russia's post-communist freedoms, took the rare step Tuesday of voicing sorrow for the victims of Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin.At a ceremony commemorating the height of the Stalin-era "Great Purge" in 1937, Putin said the Soviet Union had lost sight of "fundamental" human values and that it was essential to preserve political diversity.Russia on Tuesday was observing a Day of Memory for Victims of Political Repressions, although the focus was on the worst of the massacres committed under Stalin in 1936-38.Putin, publicly marking the day for the first time in his eight-year presidency, said such tragedy occurred when "ideas that seem attractive but prove to be empty are placed above fundamental values: human life and the rights and liberties of Man.""For our country this is a particular tragedy. Its dimensions are huge, hundreds of thousands, millions of people were exterminated, people who had their own opinions and were not afraid to express them-the cream of the nation," he said.Putin was speaking at commemorations at Butovo in southern Moscow, where more than 20,000 political prisoners were executed in 1937-38, the first time he has joined in ceremonies on the annual commemoration day.Under grey skies, flowers were placed beneath a cross erected earlier this year for the Butovo dead. Stopping to view a display of photographs of the dead, Putin exclaimed "It seems incredible, madness."But the ambivalence Putin has previously displayed towards the Soviet past was criticised by several of those attending another ceremony outside the once feared headquarters of the Soviet secret police.The vast Lubyanka building in central Moscow now houses the FSB security service, widely accused of resorting to illegal methods under Putin, notably against separatists in Chechnya.Putin, who served in the Soviet KGB, has lamented the Soviet bloc's collapse and in June suggested that Russia stood up well by comparison with US atrocities committed in Vietnam, saying "all states have their ups and downs."Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the small opposition party Yabloko, which is likely to be ousted from parliament under new rules that exclude all but the largest parties, said Putin should have joined the Lubyanka ceremony and that Stalin, who was buried with honours by the Kremlin's walls, should be moved."Let Putin stand here in front of the Lubyanka," Yavlinsky told reporters at the ceremony outside the Lubyanka, which was attended by about 1,000 people, many of them carrying flowers, candles and portraits of those who were killed."When he takes Stalin out of Red Square, then we'll have something to talk about," Yavlinsky said.In all, 725,000 prisoners were shot in the Soviet Union from August 1937 to November 1938, according to Russia's leading human rights organisation Memorial.However the total number of Soviet victims of internal repression runs to many millions, starting in the first months of the 1917 revolution and extending well into the 1950s.Campaigners say the subject of the repressions continues to be skated over in schools and that access to archives from the period remains restricted."Putin has said in the past that the year 1937 should not be forgotten, but these words have never been transformed into concrete facts," said the director of Arseny Roginsky, director of Memorial."The participation of Putin in the ceremonies corresponds to the people's expectations, which he is very sensitive to," he said.Later the pro-Kremlin youth organization Nashi followed with its own commemoration.The Kremlin is hoping to take ownership of the anniversary back from human rights activists who tend to draw parallels between Soviet-era repression and the actions of the current authorities, said Lev Ponamaryov, from the organisation For Human Rights"The fact that Putin is going to Butovo is a small advance in a society that adores Stalin," he said. "It's a public relations exercise."
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071030143050.zpozemx1&show_article=1&catnum=0

As in the days of Noah....