Putin commemorates Stalin's purge victims

Russian president Vladimir Putin warned against political ideas “placed above basic values” as he, for the first time, joined public commemorations on the 70th anniversary of mass killings ordered by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Putin’s presence at Moscow’s Butovo firing range, where 20,000 priests, artists and other “enemies of the people” were executed in 1937-38, was a noteworthy gesture by the former KGB officer, who has restored Soviet-era symbols and tried to soften public perceptions of Stalin.