Russian Communist Party calls for investigation into possible Western involvement in Stalin's death

The Communist Party of Russia asked the State Security Service FSB (FSB) and top prosecutors to investigate possible involvement of Western intelligence agencies in the death of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953as reported today by the Russian news agency RIA.

“The party has turned to the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Security Service with a request to check the possible involvement of Western intelligence services in the death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin,” party chairman Sergei Malinkovitch said, according to RIA.

“Many testimonies from Stalin's contemporaries speak of possible poisoning of the leader of the Soviet nations by agents of Western influence”said Malinkovic.

So far, however, it has not been clarified whether the relevant agencies responded to the party's request.

Today is the 71st anniversary of the death of Stalin, who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until the day he died. His cause of death was a hemorrhagic stroke, according to the government.

Stalin oversaw the rapid industrialization of Russia, but during his rule millions of people died in purges, labor camps (gulags) and famine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has given a measured assessment of Stalin's course, praising his leadership in the war but condemning his domestic policy as “totalitarian”.

The Communist Party of Russia (CPCR) was founded in 2012. Its main rival on the left of the Russian political spectrum is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), which describes itself as the successor to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

THE Malinkovic told RIA that representatives of his party will today lay flowers at the bust of Stalin on the Kremlin Wall.