Worse than Stalin?

Dear Editor,

Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, was molded into a scoundrel and the communist way of thinking at an early age.

Born in 1952 at Leningrad, Russia, he idolized his maternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin (1879-1965).

Employed as a cook for Vladimir Lenin and later for Joseph Stalin, he was often visited by his young grandson. The boy was indoctrinated with Communism.

In 1975 Vladimir Putin graduated from Leningrad State University. He majored in International Law and then got a PhD in strategic planning and national resources.

Ten years later, from 1985-1990, he was working for the KGB in Dresden, east Germany. It is not surprising that Angela Merkel, chancellor of German, has little toleration for Putin. She grew up East German and suffered from conditions attributed to the KGB activities.

Putin is more sinister than Joseph Stalin, who had little personal charm and was brutal to his friends and associates. Like Adolph Hitler, he will do anything to achieve his goals by accessing more territory and killing those who oppose him.

He was the first Russian leader to visit Iran since Joseph Stalin (1879-1953). His support for development of their "peaceful nuclear programs" was announced to the world.

Biographer Marsha Gessen describes him as a dictator. Mitt Romney has called him "a threat to the peace of the world."

The picture of him standing over a Siberian tiger was staged; it was tranquilized.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Nebraska