Perhaps attempting to justify his aggressive policy toward neighboring Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday denounced Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin, criticizing him for improperly drawing dividing lines among the former Marxist states. Putin said Lenin and his government placed a “time bomb” under the Russian state when they drew boundaries along ethnic borders, adding that the Soviet founder must have been “delirious” when he put Donbass—a region of modern-day eastern Ukraine—within the borders of Ukraine. Putin also accused Lenin of brutally executing Russia’s last czar and his family.
