Making Stalin great again

Not content with nearly obliterating the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, the Russians have now graced it with a bust of Stalin inscribed "To the organizer and inspirer of the victory of the Soviet people over the Nazi invaders, Generalissimo of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin, from grateful descendants." This was timed to celebrate Putin's (and Stalin's) bogus Victory Day of May 9.

To set the record straight: German forces surrendered to the Allies during the day on Tuesday, May 8, 1945, with the formal document signed in a French schoolhouse just after 11 p.m. that evening. It was 10 p.m. in London, 5 p.m. on the US east coast, and 2 p.m. on the west coast where the embryonic United Nations was organizing itself in the San Francisco opera house.

And it was one minute past midnight in Moscow, giving Stalin the opportunity to proclaim Victory Over Fascism Day on May 9, as if he and the Red Army alone had done the job. Putin of course keeps up the pretense, as he rebuilds the Russian and and Soviet empires of the past.

Along the same line, Putin recently renamed Volgograd airport as Stalingrad International, honoring both his murderous predecessor and the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Volgograd bore the dictator's name from 1925 to 1961, and perhaps in a few years will be called Putingrad.