Only six years ago, President Vladimir Putin visited the Polish port of Gdansk, birthplace of the Solidarity movement that threw off Soviet domination, and reassured his Eastern European neighbors that Russia had only friendly intentions.
Los Angeles Times: Putin, once critical of Stalin, now embraces Soviet dictator’s tactics
A red flag rises near a monument to the Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin in Russia's second city of St. Petersburg, on April 22, 2014, as Communist party members and supporters mark the144th anniversary of Lenin's birth.
