The Monster Returns: Stalin Looms Large Over Putin’s Russia – Analysis

By Robert Coalson

(RFE/RL) -- In the second-largest city in Russia’s Tatarstan region, Naberezhnye Chelny, there is an unusual statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin on the grounds of an unlicensed private school.

Seated casually on a bench, the figure of Stalin leans into a conversation, inviting passersby to sit down...