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Halya Coynash: Putin appoints Stalin apoligist as Russian education minister
![](https://archive.kyivpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/08/p1adbnm8o91k6s1rgfpll1aghmvt4/original.jpg)
A Russian communist party supporter holds red carnations and a portrait of late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin during a memorial ceremony to mark the 63rd anniversary of his death at Moscow's Red Square on March 5, 2016.
Olga Vasilyeva, the new arch-conservative Russian Minister of Education is known for her highly specific position on bloody dictator Joseph Stalin and for remarks implying that the figures given for victims of Stalin’s Terror are exaggeratedIt may possibly have been coincidence that President Vladimir Putin’s new appointment was announced on August 19, the 25th anniversary of the coup which led to the collapse of the USSR.