(AFP) – Dec 26, 2007

MOSCOW (AFP) — A new Russian history textbook that reportedly praises President Vladimir Putin and justifies Stalin's dictatorship is a response to anti-Russian tendencies abroad, Kommersant daily quoted the controversial book's editor saying Thursday.

"I have analysed books on Russian history in neighbouring countries and came to the conclusion... that our neighbours excel at educational Russophobia," the editor, Alexander Filippov, was quoted as saying.

"The Russian people is presented as a source of all evil. It was necessary to respond," he said.

The newly approved textbook, "Russian History 1945-2007," is to be tried out in schools in five Russian regions pending nationwide approval.

Kommersant said "the eras of Joseph Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev get good marks, with justification of authoritarianism and repression."

The 1990s rule of Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first post-Soviet leader, is portrayed as "crisis," while Putin's presidency -- seen by critics as reversing many post-Soviet freedoms -- is shown to be "effective," Kommersant said.

In particular, the book puts a positive spin on the controversial imprisonment of Yukos oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky under Putin and the 2004 decision to end direct elections for regional governors, the report said.

The text is based on a handbook published earlier this year by pro-Kremlin historians that described Stalin as "efficient."

"We don't justify Stalin on his purges but we also don't stigmatise him on every page," said Pavel Danilin, one of the book's authors and a researcher at the pro-Kremlin Foundation for Effective Policy.

The new textbook is not yet available in bookshops and the 1,000 copies published have been sent directly to the schools concerned, where it will be used in classrooms during 2008, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily reported.

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