In a report aired on Monday's NBC Today from the Sochi Olympic
games, correspondent Stephanie Gosk toured the Russian capital: "Moscow
evokes powerful images. The Kremlin, Soviet leaders, the Red Army. But
beyond the Cold War symbols, this city of 10 million people is a modern
bustling metropolis..." [Listen to the audio [1]]
Later in the segment, Gosk described the city's subway system as "one
of Moscow's hidden gems," even to the point of praising the ruthless
Soviet dictator who created it: "Stalin promised the metro would be a palace for the people, and so it is. Open architecture, mosaics, even chandeliers."
Under the Soviet Union, estimates [2] are that between 8.5 million and 50 million people died of starvation, politically-motivated murder and in forced labor camps.
During the Olympic opening ceremony on February 7, a gauzy NBC-produced profile [3]
of Russia described the nation's brutal Communist past as "the
revolution that birthed one of modern history's pivotal experiments."
— Kyle Drennen is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter. [4]