Facebook's SnapChat-Style Sexting App Is Called Poke (Seriously)

Oh, well would you look at Facebook, trying to make a Christmas funny with its SnapChat copycat app. It's called Poke! Get it? Because SnapChat is what the kids are all using for their sexting these days, apparently, and Poke — you know, that once kinda flirty Facebook future that's now pretty much useless — can kind of do the same thing, and it kind of sounds like some bad sexual pun, too! Funny, Facebook, very funny, and way to admit the dirty little truth behind "poking" that we knew all along.
RELATED: Facebook to Launch Its Own SnapChat as Social-Network Clone Wars Live on
Oh, wait. They're serious? Oh, yeah: Friday afternoon Facebook released Poke, its rumored iPhone app for the incredible vanishing half-message "that makes it fun and easy to say hello to friends wherever you are." But don't get too heavy on the old-school "Poke" comparisons, because the new app can actually send regular messages, photos, or videos, too — but only for short periods of time, because that is apparently what the kids like doing these days, if SnapChat's huge success is any indication. There's more of a time-bomb component to Poke, though: users can choose how long someone sees a poke before it ceases to exist forever — so you could sext poke all day long, because that, too, is apparently what the kids like doing these days, if SnapChat's huge, smashing, sexy success is any indication.
RELATED: The Life and Philosophy of Mark Zuckerberg
Why would anyone use Poke over SnapChat? Well, the Facebook app itself has a much smoother interface than SnapChat, and you can report people behaving badly, and everyone's already on Facebook, right? Maybe this is the breaking point Justin Bieber could never hit, when something sexy goes from the tween set to actual human beings. We'll let you know when Poke shows up in our iPhone's App Store; for now we're not entirely sure if this is just some bad joke.

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Beleaguered Motorola gets another boost, snags top Samsung marketing exec

It’s good to see that Google (GOOG) has some plans for Motorola other than selling it off for parts. Unnamed sources have told AllThingsD that Google has hired Brian Wallace, who for the past year has served as the vice president of strategic marketing at Samsung’s (005930) American phone unit, to take the reins for marketing at Motorola. As we noted recently, Samsung’s marketing team has been at the top of its game all year by producing witty, funny commercials that both mock rival Apple (AAPL) and that deftly promote Samsung phones by giving concrete examples of how they improve people’s lives. So while most other smartphone vendors have made ads that make it look as though your smartphone will turn you into a cyborg, Samsung’s ads depict the simple joy of using NFC to share videos with your friends. Although we don’t know how much input Wallace had into these ads, it’s nice to see that Google is recruiting some in-demand talent to help revive Motorola.

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RIM shares dive as fee changes catch market off guard

Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd plunged more than 20 percent on Friday on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on the business that has set the company apart from its competitors.
It was the stock's biggest, single-day, percentage price drop since September 2008. But shares were still nearly 80 percent above the year's low, which was reached in September. They started to rally in November as investors began to bet that RIM's long-awaited new BlackBerry 10 phones, which will be unveiled in January, would turn the company around.
The services segment has long been RIM's most profitable and accounts for about a third of total revenue. Some analysts said there was a risk that the fee changes could endanger its service ecosystem and leave the Canadian company as just another handset maker.
The fee changes, which RIM announced on Thursday after market close, overshadowed stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The company said the new pricing structure would be introduced with the BlackBerry 10 launch, expected on January 30.
RIM said some subscribers would continue to pay for enhanced services such as advanced security. But under the new structure, some other services would account for less revenue, or even none at all.
Chief Executive Thorsten Heins tried to reassure investors in a television interview with CNBC on Friday, saying RIM's "service revenue isn't going away".
He added: "We're not stopping. We're not halting. We're transitioning."
Since taking over at RIM in January, Heins has focused on shrinking the company and getting it ready to introduce its new BB10 devices, which RIM says will help it claw back ground it has lost to competitors such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.
But the new services pricing strategy came as a shock to markets, and some analysts cut their price targets on RIM stock.
RIM will not be able to sustain profitability by relying on its hardware business alone, said National Bank Financial analyst Kris Thompson, whom Thomson Reuters StarMine has rated the top RIM analyst based on the accuracy of his estimates of the company's earnings.
Thompson downgraded RIM's stock to "underperform" from "sector perform" and cut his price target to $10 from $15.
Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said the move was likely about stabilizing market share: "At the moment, they need to stem the bleeding."
He said the tiered pricing might line up better with RIM's subscriber base as it expands in emerging economies.
RIM's Nasdaq-listed shares closed down 22.7 percent at $10.91 on Friday. The stock fell 22.2 percent to C$10.86 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
COUNTDOWN TO LAUNCH
The success of the BB10 will be crucial to the future of RIM, which on Thursday posted its first-ever decline in total subscribers. Heins said on CNBC that the company expected to ship millions of the new devices.
He cautioned that this will require heavy investment, which will reduce RIM's cash position in its fourth and first quarters from $2.9 billion in its fiscal third quarter. He said, however, it would not go below $2 billion.
Still, doubts remain about whether RIM can pull off the transformation. Needham analyst Charlie Wolf said the BB10 would have to look meaningfully superior to its competitors for RIM to stage a comeback.
Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley said it was highly unlikely that the market would support RIM's new mobile computing ecosystem, and he remained skeptical about the company's ability to survive on its own.
"We believe RIM will eventually need to sell the company," said Walkley, who cut his price target on RIM shares to $9 from $10.
Baird Equity Research analysts said BB10 faced a daunting uphill battle against products from Apple, as well as those using Google Inc's Android operating system, and, increasingly, phones with Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 operating system.
Baird maintained its "underperform" rating on the stock, while Paradigm Capital downgraded the shares to "hold" from "buy" on uncertainty around the services revenue model.
"RIM has gone from having one major aspect of uncertainty - BlackBerry 10 adoption - to two, given an uncertain floor on services revenue," William Blair analyst Anil Doradla said.
RIM will have to discount BB10 devices significantly to maintain demand, Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu said.
The BlackBerry, however, still offers the security features that helped it build its reputation with big business and government, a selling point with some key customers.
Credit Suisse maintained its "neutral" rating on the stock, but not because it expected BB10 to be a big success.
"Only the potential for an outright sale of the company or a breakup keeps us at a neutral," Credit Suisse analysts said.
Separately on Friday, ailing Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia said it had settled its patent dispute with RIM in return for payments.

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Facebook releases ‘Poke’ for the iPhone to compete with Snapchat

Facebook (FB) on Friday released a new free application for the iPhone called Poke that competes directly with Snapchat and allows users to send a messages, photos or videos that will self-destruct after a set time. With Poke you can send messages to individual friends or groups that are set to expire after one, three, five or ten seconds. The app is simple to use and only requires you to hold down a finger on a thread to activate the timer for a specific message. It was previously reported that an Android version would be released too, however Facebook did not reveal any such plans at this time. Poke is set to be available on the App Store later today.

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Understanding the Holidays, Through Science

Animals hang around the mistletoe. Lonely people in desperate need of a smooch aren't the only ones who hover near the mistletoe. Vertebrate animals in Australian forests also stick close to this parasitic plant, because it attracts edible insects to the forest floor. Researchers recently found that when mistletoe is removed from eucalyptus trees in such environments, up to a fifth of the creatures living in the area will leave. [Scientific American]
RELATED: Mistletoe Has Gone Missing
Don't put too much thought into gifts. "It's the thought that counts," right? Not empirically, say researchers. They found that going off gut feelings while last-minute shopping may work better than endlessly analyzing whether or not they'll like that item you're thinking about buying them. "If you're looking at those shiny new winter shovels for your spouse, ask yourself, 'Is this right or wrong?' and trust your gut. You'll be well served by your intuition," says Boston College's Michael G. Pratt about this research. "It's likely that your spouse doesn't want a shovel and you don't want to be the one who gives that gift." [Boston College]
RELATED: How to Make a Last-Minute Gift Count
The rage of the holiday shopper. When shoppers break social norms—cutting in line, or strewing clothes all over the ground, let's say—other shoppers seek to punish them, researchers from the University of British Columbia and University of Alberta find. But they've also seen that this inclination to punish rude shoppers can be mitigated. For instance, if shoppers themselves were just called out for bad behavior, they're likely to give others a pass. And if someone cuts in line because they claim to be late for an appointment, other shoppers are more likely to let them if they have higher social status. "Punishment is a complex decision for consumers to make as it is difficult to punish someone but also difficult to look the other way. Consumers do not seem to make these decisions lightly, and a number of interesting factors influence consumer punishment decisions," write researchers Lily Lin, Darren W. Dahl, and Jennifer J. Argo. [University of Chicago Press Journals]
RELATED: Is This the End of Cyber Monday, or Just the Real Beginning?
Fish get geomagnetism. It's a Christmas miracle in geomagnetic discoveries! After perusing the carp for sale in Czech Christmas markets, Hynek Burda of Prague's University of Life Sciences noticed that the fish kept aligning themselves along a north-south axis. After studying and photographing 14,000 fish from 25 different markets, he found that they all did the same thing. This suggests to Burda that the fish have an innate sensitivity to the Earth's geomagnetic forces.

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NATO: Syria using Scud-type rockets again

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Syrian military has continued to fire Scud-type missiles, NATO's top official said Friday, describing the move as an act of desperation of a regime nearing its end.
Although none of the Syrian rockets hit Turkish territory, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmusen said the use of the medium-range ballistic rockets showed that NATO was justified in deploying six batteries of Patriot anti-missile systems in neighboring Turkey.
The United States, Germany and the Netherlands will each provide two batteries of the U.S.-built air defense systems to Turkey. More than 1,000 American, German and Dutch troops will man the batteries, likely from sites well inland in Turkey.
Syria's use of missiles are "acts of a desperate regime approaching collapse," Fogh Rasmussen told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
A week ago, U.S. and NATO officials said the Syrians had used the ground-to-ground rockets for the first time in the nearly two-year conflict. Damascus immediately denied the claims.
Syria is reported to have an array of artillery rockets, as well as medium-range missiles — some capable of carrying chemical warheads. These include Soviet-built SS-21 Scarabs and Scud-B missiles, originally designed to deliver nuclear warheads.
On Thursday, NATO's supreme commander U.S. Adm. James Stavridis said the Patriot batteries will be shipped to Turkey within the next few days. He said he expected them to achieve initial operational capability next month.
Stavridis said the chain of command starts with himself as the operational commander, through NATO's air component command in Ramstein, Germany, and down to the commanders of the Patriot batteries at their locations in southern Turkey.
The operation will be closely coordinated with the Turkish air defense system, he said.

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Mother loses legal fight to stop son's cancer radiotherapy

LONDON (Reuters) - A mother in Britain, who was so desperate to stop her cancer-stricken son having to undergo conventional medical treatment that she went into hiding with him, lost a court battle on Friday to prevent him receiving radiotherapy.
The case of Sally Roberts, 37, a New Zealander living in Brighton, southern England, and the plight of her seven-year-old son has made headlines in Britain.
Roberts wants to try alternative treatments first, including immunotherapy and photodynamic therapy for her son Neon. She has been told the boy needs treatment fast but fears the side-effects of conventional medicine.
Doctors treating the boy had warned that without radiotherapy he could die within three months
Judge David Bodey told the High Court in London the life-saving radiotherapy treatment could start against the mother's wishes, the Press Association reported.
"The mother has been through a terrible time. This sort of thing is every parent's nightmare," the judge said.
"But I am worried that her judgment has gone awry on the question of the seriousness of the threat which Neon faces."
The story of the sick blue-eyed blonde boy came to public attention earlier this month when Roberts prompted a nationwide police hunt by going into hiding with Neon for four days to stop him from undergoing the treatment.
The mother's relentless battle in court also cast a light on the dilemmas parents can face when dealing with the illness of a loved one, considering the short-term and long-term risks of a treatment and handling conflicting medical information available at the click of a mouse.
Roberts said in court she had researched on the Internet her son's condition - a fast-growing, high-grade brain tumour called medulloblastoma - and sought advice from specialists around the world because she did not trust British experts.
She feared radiotherapy would stunt the boy's growth, reduce his IQ, damage his thyroid and potentially leave him infertile.
Earlier this week, a judge ruled that Neon could undergo emergency surgery to remove a tumour which had resisted an initial operation in October, despite opposition from his mother, who found he appeared to be recovering after what she said was a "heartbreaking" stay in hospital.
"EXPERIMENTAL AND UNPROVEN"
Surgeons said Neon's operation on Wednesday had been successful but that radiotherapy was needed to ensure no residual tumour was left behind.
Neon's father Ben, who lives in London and is separated from Roberts, has sided with his son's doctors.
But his wife suggested exploring several alternative treatments, including immunotherapy, which mainly consists of stimulating the body's immune system to fight cancerous cells, and photodynamic therapy, which uses a photosensitizing agent and a source of light to kill malignant cells.
The hospital treating Neon slammed "experimental and unproven" methods which entered "unchartered territory". The hospital, which cannot be named, also questioned the credentials of some of the private specialists contacted by Roberts's team.
The court heard that at least one of these could not even correctly spell medulloblastoma.
Radiotherapy is used to prevent cancer from spreading or striking back after surgery but it can damage nerve tissue and healthy brain cells.
Long-term side effects tend to be more common in children, whose nervous systems are still developing.

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Instant View - Third quarter GDP revised down, public finances worsen

LONDON (Reuters) - The Office for National Statistics released revised third-quarter GDP figures and November public sector finances data on Friday.
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KEY POINTS
- Biggest quarterly increase in GDP since Q3 2007
- Biggest quarterly increase in industrial output since Q2 2010
- Biggest quarterly increase in services output since Q3 2007
- Biggest quarterly increase in gross operating surplus of corporations since Q3 2010
- Highest household savings ratio since Q3 2009
- Highest level on record of public sector net debt excluding financial sector interventions as a share of GDP, at 68.5 percent
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ECONOMISTS' VIEWS
HOWARD ARCHER, IHS GLOBAL INSIGHT
"The modest revisions to the GDP data do not fundamentally change the story of an economy that is likely to have been essentially flat overall in 2012, with the quarterly performances distorted since the second quarter by a number of factors, notably including the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics.
"It currently looks touch and go as to whether the economy can avoid renewed contraction in the fourth quarter as it faces the unwinding of the Olympics boost.
"News that service sector output only edged up 0.1 percent month-on-month in October reinforces (the) belief that the economy is having a difficult fourth quarter, but at least services output was marginally positive and that gives a small boost to hopes that the economy will avoid renewed contraction.
"While it really makes little difference whether the economy grows marginally in the fourth quarter, is flat or contracts marginally, it would be good for confidence if the economy could avoid a GDP decline and avert headlines of a 'triple dip'.
"With economic recovery likely to remain fragile and limited, we believe there is still a very real possibility that the Bank of England will ultimately decide to give the economy a further helping hand with a final 50 billion pounds of QE (quantitative easing)during the first half of 2013. However, this seems unlikely to happen before the second quarter, if at all."
ROSS WALKER, RBS
"We had 0.9, it looked quite a close call between 0.9 and 1.0. But, with the monthly industrial production numbers showing small downward revisions, we thought it would probably be trimmed. I suppose the Q3 number reinforces the weakness.
"The more significant figure is the October services sector output number. This is the first official estimate we have for any Q4 month. It is not a great number but it is positive and it is better than the decline that had been expected.
"On the basis of all the published data it looks like the fourth quarter will be broadly flat, rather than negative - based on the published data.
"I think the Bank of England's policy is on hold in terms of QE, probably the focus is more on the Funding for Lending Scheme.
"They could easily come back to it, but I think it is probably a second half of next year story once Mr Carney is in place, and his nine member committee. You could get a slight change in emphasis or focus when he comes in. We don't expect more QE, but if it comes it is a second half of next year story."
TOM VOSA, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK
On GDP: "Not entirely surprised, that was our forecast. The partials that we'd had from retail sales, from industrial production, all pointed to this. To some degree this is old news and 0.9 or 1.0 percent doesn't really matter, it's still very strong growth."
On public finances: "It does make us wonder how the Chancellor is going to meet his borrowing targets when in reality borrowing tends to be running now a little bit above where we were last year.
"They must be hoping for a very big increase in revenues in January, which given the weakness of corporation tax and the reduction in financial sector pay I find very difficult."
PHILIP SHAW, INVESTEC
"There's a lot of data being released and there's no single overriding trend. We're not surprised to see GDP revised down a touch but what matters a lot more are prospects for the fourth quarter and because of last week's construction data, we're more optimistic that a decline will be avoided.
"Current account again, it's reassuring to see that there's been a narrowing of the deficit over the third quarter. Effectively, as earnings from direct investment have bounced back after two quarters of weakness. Nonetheless, one would still reach the conclusion that imbalances in the economy remain."
Public finances: "It's another month of disappointing deficit data and it's pretty clear now that barring unexpected positive developments, that the underlying deficit will widen this year, compared with 2011-12.
"We wouldn't say that the releases as a whole have that many implications for economic prospects.
"Although we suspect that the GDP figures will be a bit better than expected over the next quarter, perhaps next couple of quarters, it is clear that the underlying pace of growth will remain weak for some time to come.
"I think what's important here is whether the Bank of England's Funding for Lending Scheme has a positive effect on credit flows that the housing market picks up and that we see a sustained recovery in business investment as well."
DAVID TINSLEY, BNP PARIBAS
"The headline GDP figure is a shade disappointing, but 0.1 percentage point is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. The fact that the service sector output rose in October is at least as important.
"It does suggest that, while some of the production data has been weak in the fourth quarter, the service sector momentum looks, at the outset of the quarter, to be holding up."
Public finances: "The data continue to show a worrying slippage against the government forecasts.
(To achieve the OBR forecasts) there has got to be either some improvement in the numbers or back revisions, or at the end of the financial year the under spends of government departments needs to be quite significant. All that we will see in due course but for now the figures still look like they are worse than OBR was expecting."
JAMES KNIGHTLEY, ING
"All in all, the UK appears to be ending 2012 not in particularly great shape and as such we suspect the Bank of England has more work to do with further policy stimulus likely in early 2013, especially if the worst fears over the U.S. fiscal cliff materialise."
Public finances: "For the financial year to date (2012/13), income tax revenues, corporation tax revenues and VAT revenues are all down on the same period for financial year 2011/12.
"This highlights the weak state of the UK economy and the fact that austerity measures are failing to generate the improvement in government finances that were hoped for.
"Government cash outlays are down as well, but this is purely down to lower interest costs resulting from the plunge in yields, helped by BoE purchases and the UK's relative safe haven status."
ALAN CLARKE, SCOTIABANK
"I actually think the monthly services (figure) was the most important one. That makes it all the more likely that the UK did not slip into a triple dip recession at the end of the year.
"The chances are that we could grow by 0.3 percent, maybe even more, because we had stonkingly good construction data and some growth in services, although clearly that could change in November and December.
"Notwithstanding the drop in industrial production, I think we probably grew. So it has been a great end to the year."
Public finances: "The public finances are going in the wrong direction. But we know that there is all sorts of jiggery pokery going on with the transfer of coupons by the ONS (Office for National Statistics), probably next month. So, it is very hard to read too much into that data."

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Budget deficit worsens, credit rating at risk

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's budget deficit worsened in November, data showed on Friday, increasing the risk it will lose its top-notch credit rating and overshoot this year's borrowing forecast.
The data - which showed public sector net borrowing, excluding financial sector interventions, hit 17.5 billion pounds last month - is gloomy news for Britain's coalition government.
Deficit reduction and preserving Britain's credit rating have been top goals for the coalition of Conservatives and Lib Dems, which came to power in June 2010, just after the country's budget deficit peaked at 11.2 percent of GDP.
Last year, the budget deficit totalled 8 percent of GDP, and the government's own budget watchdog forecasts it will take until 2017 before it falls below 3 percent and the government manages to run a surplus on cyclically-adjusted non-investment spending.
Chancellor George Osborne had originally planned to meet this goal by the next election in 2015, but far weaker than expected growth since 2010 now makes that look impossible.
While other official data released on Friday showed Britain's economy may avoid a forecast contraction in the last three months of 2012, analysts say the borrowing numbers could see the country's credit rating revised early next year.
"The disappointing November public finance data fuel mounting expectations that at least one of the credit rating agencies will strip the UK of its AAA rating in 2013," said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.
Standard & Poor's last week joined Fitch and Moody's and put a negative outlook on its triple-A rating for Britain. The latter two agencies - which have had a negative outlook since early this year - will review their ratings in early 2013.
Last month's public sector net borrowing figure of 17.5 billion pounds exceeded economists' expectations. They had forecast it would come in just below the 16.3 billion pounds reached in November 2011.
Borrowing since the start of the tax year in April is now nearly 10 percent higher than at the same point in 2011.
This calls into question forecasts issued earlier this month by the government's budget watchdog which estimated borrowing will fall 11 percent to total 108.5 billion pounds in the 2012-13 tax year.
Some of the fall in borrowing forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was due to money expected from the auction of next-generation mobile phone frequencies and a deal with the Bank of England to return interest paid on its bond holdings - cash that will not boot the public finances until early 2013.
But even disregarding this, some economists think Osborne, the finance minister, may struggle to hit the OBR's targets.
Archer expects an overshoot of some 14 billion pounds, while economists at Barclays see an overshoot of 6.5 billion pounds, assuming the radio spectrum auction brings in the 3.5 billion pounds pencilled in by the OBR.
WEAKER GROWTH
Britain's economy shrank for nine months between late 2011 and mid-2012, but revised figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Friday that growth rebounded by 0.9 percent in the third quarter of 2012, a little less than the 1.0 percent first estimated.
There was slightly brighter news from Britain's dominant services sector, which grew 0.1 percent in October after a 0.6 percent decline in September.
This was better than many economists had expected, and raises the prospect that the economy will avoid a return to contraction that the OBR and the Bank of England have predicted.
"It's not a great number but it is positive," said Ross Walker, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland. "On the basis of all the published data it looks like the fourth quarter will be broadly flat, rather than negative."
Another bright spot was third-quarter current account data, which showed Britain's deficit with the rest of the world narrowed more than expected to 12.8 billion pounds, equivalent to 3.3 percent of GDP, from 17.4 billion in the second quarter.
However, economic growth will need to translate into stronger tax revenues and lower spending on social benefits if the government is to meet its budget goals.
November's budget overshoot was driven by a 6.3 percent year-on-year rise in central government spending, while tax revenues grew just 0.6 percent.
The closure of a North Sea oil field earlier this year has done major damage to corporation tax revenues, but Barclays economist Blerina Uruci said she was more concerned about signs that spending by government departments was rising more than expected.
"It could suggest difficulties with delivering efficiency savings as austerity fatigue sets in," she said.
The OBR said it expected to see underspending by government departments towards the end of the fiscal year, as well as stronger future growth in income tax and sales tax revenues.
Business minister Vince Cable sought to play down worries about the state of public finances, saying more austerity than planned could tip the economy back into recession.
"The fact that there has been a temporary increase in borrowing I don't think is a matter for criticism," he told BBC radio. "The government ... have been flexible, just accepting that when the economy slows down you are going to get bigger deficits (and) the government has to borrow to cover them."
However, the Labour Party said Friday's data showed there had already been too much austerity.
"By squeezing families and businesses too hard, choking off the recovery and so pushing borrowing up, not down, (Prime Minister) David Cameron and George Osborne's economic plan has completely backfired," said Labour legislator Rachel Reeves.

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Stalin's birthday marked in Russia and beyond

apital, Tbilisi, Friday, Dec. 21, …more
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Ushangi Davitashvili, left, and …
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Ushangi Davitashvili, right, and …
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — People across the vast territory where Josef Stalin once imposed his terror have marked the 133rd anniversary of the dictator's birth, some in hatred but others in reverence.
In Moscow, several hundred Russian Communists led by their leader Gennady Zuyganov laid flowers at Stalin's grave at the Red Square Friday, while smaller rallies were held across Russia and several former Soviet republics.
Leftists in neighboring Belarus said they found a Stalin statue that was buried after denunciation of his personality cult in 1956, but refused to specify its whereabouts because they fear authorities will order its destruction. Authorities in Stalin's hometown of Gori, Georgia, they will reinstall his statue that was removed in 2010.
In southern Ukraine, several ethnic Crimean Tatars trashed a small street exhibition on Stalin. The entire Crimean Tatar population of Ukraine was hastily deported in cattle trains on Stalin's orders in 1944 for their alleged collaboration with Nazi Germans during World War II. Of the 200,000 Crimean Tatars, almost a fifth died of starvation and diseases, and the survivors were allowed to return only in the late 1980s.
According to the prominent Russian right group Memorial, Stalin ordered the deaths of at least 724,000 people during the purges and repression of the 1930s, while millions died as a result of the forced labor system in Gulags, the Soviet prison system.
But, some people believe he was a strong and valiant leader whose grip on the nation was needed for security and his popularity in Russia has been climbing amid Kremlin-backed efforts to defend his image.

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