Stalin is much more popular today than he ever was in the Khruschev, Brezhnev or Gorbachev eras.
I would say that Stalinophilia in Russia corresponds closely with level of poverty. I think the reasoning is "Stalin brought the country out of the crisis in the Great Patriotic War. If we could beat Hitler under Stalin, then, under Stalin today, we could get our way out of a namby-pamby bad economic situation."
I can just picture Pugliese running around the Moscow metro waving Stalin death figures around freaking out the babushky, frantically trying to get them to repent of their evil Stalin-loving ways. The only people in Russia who hate Stalin, which a few exceptions, are relatives of people he killed (sometimes, even they like Stalin) and a few liberals who are despised by the population at large and exist only in Moscow.
BTW on the Stalin-insanity issue: I think one reason it strikes me as so weird is that you never, ever hear anyone in Russia call Stalin "crazy," not even his most rabid detractors. I told my (Russian) girlfriend about the discussion here and she thought it was just bizarre: "Russians need strong leaders!"
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