(2005-05-07) — Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the eve of President George Bush’s visit to Moscow, today said that former Soviet leader Josef V. Stalin is “the victim of a vast west-wing conspiracy.”

The remark comes a day after Mr. Putin told the German newspaper, Bild, “I cannot agree with equating Stalin with Hitler. Yes, Stalin was certainly a tyrant and many call him a criminal, but he was not a Nazi.”

He hastened to remind the White House that Time magazine named Mr. Stalin ‘Man of the Year’ twice, while Mr. Hitler achieved that honor only once, making any comparison between the two “absurd.”

“Hitler started a war that caused the deaths of 60 million people,” Mr. Putin said. “That’s three times as many deaths as Stalin’s trivial toll from the purges and etcetera. It’s laughable really.”

Meanwhile, President Bush stopped in Latvia to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and of the start of Soviet occupation of eastern Europe. Latvian officials continued to call for Russia to apologize for decades of Soviet rule and repression.

However, Mr. Putin said he “can’t believe the Latvian cry-babies are still sore about that. If they didn’t want be part of the Soviet family of nations, why didn’t they say so at the time? The only Latvians speaking out then were criminals in prison.”

Mr. Putin continues to resist White House pressure to reverse his recent actions that the U.S. sees as anti-democratic efforts to consolidate power and quash dissent.

But the defiant Russian leader insists that, “Russian citizens are still free to say whatever I want. Those who disagree with me are just trying to limit the liberty of my supporters.”

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