Growing support for Stalin statue

Nearly half of Russians who took part in an independent poll support a statesanctioned monument to Joseph Stalin.

The survey, by Moscow’s Levada Center, said 48% of respondents would be “positively disposed” to the idea of a statue to the Soviet despot to celebrate victory over the Nazis.

Only 20% firmly opposed the idea, and 29% were “indifferent”. A decade ago only 25% backed a statue.

Approval of Stalin’s legacy has grown under President Vladimir Putin, who has made celebration of winning the “Great Patriotic War” a pillar of his rule. Stalin’s former summer house, in the city of Sochi, is now a tourist attraction.