When vladimir putin emerged from his black limousine in Volgograd's train-station square on Aug. 23, squinting and blinking to adjust his eyes to the blazing sun of the steppes, he found an odd mix of people before him. Scattered among the few hundred elderly veterans who had gathered to greet him were a dozen leather-clad members of the Night Wolves, a Slavic motorcycle gang, standing at attention. But it was Putin's kind of crowd. Diving in, he returned the bikers' bear hugs and let the veterans get close enough to take selfies with him on their cameras, even as a secret-service agent stood two steps away with a black briefcase containing Russia's nuclear launch codes-Putin's nuclear football. "He's a colossal historical figure," remarked Mikhail Sidorov, a veteran of World War Ⅱ, who stood watching at the edge of the crowd. "He's not quite Stalin yet, but he's getting there."
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