A lot of evidence is emerging that Stalin was the first democrat of our country.  How can a textbook prove that Stalin was a tyrant?  I’ve come here to defend Stalin, to defend him against these terrible accusations. He was a great man. He united the country and created a great superpower.

Those were the words of the Russian supporters of the greatest mass-murderer of Russians in world history, Josef Stalin, gathered outside the Basmanny District Court last week, defending their hero as his legal case for libel against the heroic Novaya Gazeta newspaper went straight into the crapper.

NG was being sued by the spawn of Stalin himself because it expressed a slightly different view of Stalin, namely that he was a “bloodthirsty cannibal.”  Not even a Russian court was willing to find that to be a false statement.  In fact, it’s odd that Stalin’s supporters were offended by this designation.  One would think that a pack of bloodthirsty cannibals would be proud to wear this epithet like a  badge of honor.

It’s yet another crack in the foundations of the Putin regime.  As we documented in our last issue, various high-ranking officials have begun to directly challenge Putin’s outrageous misconduct, and now the court system is joining in as well.  Let’s not forget that Putin’s own policies have been to rehabilitate Stalin, including a specific program to alter high school history textbooks in order to brand Stalin as a wise leader who only did what he had to do during his time in power.

And let’s also not forget that this outrageous lawsuit actually got to trial, something that could not have happened in any civilized nation on the planet.  In any normal country, this lawsuit would have been thrown out long before the day of trial as the frivolous piece of garbage it is.

Nor should we forget that the similar lawsuit by the crazed dictator of Chechnya against the Memorial human rights organization over its statements in defense of Natalia Estemirova recently had quite a different outcome: The dictator won.

Nonetheless, the Stalin ruling is an important victory for our side.  In combination with the recent walkout of “opposition” deputies in the Duma and the various open challenges to Putin by administration officials, these actions show that Putin is far from the invicible political juggernaut he is painted as being.  They show that we can win this fight for Russia’s future if only we do not lose heart.

Source: La Russophobe