The grandson of Joseph Stalin has denied the Soviet tyrant was a 'bloodthirsty cannibal' and has blasted current Russian President Vladimir Putin as having a 'lack of brains'.

Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, 79, spoke exclusively to MailOnline after he lost a ruling in the European Court of Human Rights seeking to defend the reputation of his infamous grandfather, who Western historians blame for the slaughter of tens of millions of his countrymen.

In a wide-ranging diatribe, he insisted Putin was not a strong leader like Stalin, attacking the former KGB spy's topless photo stunts and claiming he heads a government of 'thieves and tricksters'.

In a bizarre rant, Dzhugashvili also insisted Britain remains an 'enemy' to Russia - even though he sent his son Jacob to art college in Scotland.

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Defiant: Stalin's grandson Yevgeny Dzhugashvili denies his forefather was a 'bloodthirsty cannibal'. He said: 'Nowadays it is hard to find common sense in anything being said about Stalin, because a general prescription has been given to our society. It is that Stalin must be blamed for everything'

Tyrant: Joseph Stalin was leader of the Soviet Union from the 1920s until his death in 1953 and is regarded as one of the most brutal dictators in history by Western historians. He led a murderous regime and is believed to be responsible for some 40 million deaths during his reign

Campaign: Stalin's grandson Yevgeny Dzhugashvili - pictured here in front of a portrait of his grandfather - also blasted current Russian President Vladimir Putin for the current crisis in the Ukraine and said the Kremlin is being run by 'tricksters and thieves'

Dzhugashvili had sought defamation damages after a Russian newspaper claimed Stalin had 'evaded moral responsibility' of the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish prisoners of war in 1940, labelling him a 'bloodthirsty cannibal'.

One of the most brutal dictators in history, say Western historians, Stalin has been blamed for some 40 million deaths during his murderous rule of the Soviet Union.

But the European Court of Human Right, based in Strasbourg, France, ruled against him saying Stalin actions 'inevitably remain open to public scrutiny and criticism'.

A furious Dzhugashvili said: 'I am outraged with the decision of the European Court. What else can I say? Our endless attempts to appeal to courts are like beating the air.

'Nowadays it is hard to find common sense in anything being said about Stalin, because a general prescription has been given to our society. It is that Stalin must be blamed for everything.'

The Katyn massacre saw approximately 22,000 Polish nationals executed by the Soviet state secret police in April and May 1940.

The Soviet Union claimed the victims had been murdered by the Nazis in 1941, but in 1990 then officially acknowledged responsibility for the killings.

But Dzhugashvili maintains his grandfather was innocent and insists that the Polish and Russian media are part of a conspiracy theory to blame Stalin.

He thundered: 'This is the time we are living in, the bastards have won. Too many have got awards from Poland or were bought by Poland. It is like a pig-pile.

'It was decided to blame Stalin for everything.'

Massacre: A memorial in Poland for the 22,000 victims of the Katyn masscare. The Polish nationals were killed by the Soviet secret police in April and May 1940, but their mass graves were not uncovered until 1943

Outspoken: Dzhugashvili tried to sue Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta for £160,000 damages after they called his grandfather Stalin a 'bloodthirsty cannibal'

Dzhugashvili claimed liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta, from which he had sought £160,000 damages, 'do not care about the truth. They just feel their impunity. It is simply because of the times we are living in, both in Russia and in Poland.

'Let's look at Katyn again - if it was done by the Russians, why did Hitler say nothing about it when he attacked the USSR?

22,000 MURDERED BY SECRET POLICE: THE KATYN MASSACRE In April and May 1940, the Soviet secret police killed 22,000 Polish nationals in the Katyn Forest in Russia. The slaughter was approved by the Soviet Politburo, including leader Josef Stalin. The mass graves were uncovered by Nazi Germany in 1943. Soviet leaders intially denied all knowledge and accused the Nazi German government of the killings. But in 1990, after an investigation and release of classified documents, they admitted the crime. Advertisement

'Hitler would never have missed such an opportunity.

'But the truth is there was no execution in Katyn by the Russians. It was done by the Germans, but in a way the Soviets could be blamed.

'It was Goebbels who wrote "We have planted such a bomb"', he claimed, referring to Katyn.

'And Stalin was the one who gathered the Polish army back together again. Why then did he need to shoot the officers?

'I can't understand why Polish people believe in this wrong version. Where is the logic here?'.

He strongly attacked the Kremlin for working with the Polish government by establishing a commission and releasing previously secret Soviet documents which indicate the culpability of the Soviets for the massacre.

Evidence released from the USSR's archives was 'fake', he claims, promising to use a new book on his grandfather to put right what he regards as the calumnies of history.

Putin's 'reward' for effectively admitting Russian guilt, he said sarcastically, was not to be invited to next week's 70th anniversary of the liberation by the Red Army of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

Show off: Dzhugashvili claims Putin - seen here on a fishing trip in 2007 - is more concerned with his personal image than politics. He said: 'As for Putin, his shoes are too big for him'

Macho man: Russian President Vladimir Putin has been frequently pictured on hunting trips where he poses topless for the cameras

He said: 'It is amazing that commissions are being founded which the Kremlin itself runs, our leadership in the Kremlin, who are tricksters and thieves.

'They are going down the same road along with the Polish leadership.

'It is amazing, this enemy state has become an ally. And now they have not even invited Putin.

'Well, they wiped up the floor with him, I must say. And they did the right thing.

'If you do not love your people and your country, if you do not love your history, how we can demand it from the foreigners?

'Poland is an enemy state for us, their anger lasts for many centuries, and UK is another enemy.

'If only Stalin had lived just five years longer, the catastrophe that has unfolded in Russia would have been prevented.

'But Stalin was gone and Nikita Khrushchev got the power and started destroying the economy.

'This led to the situation when enemies of the Soviets got the power - Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin.

'In Gorbachev's times the Politbureau degenerated so much that it became the enemy. It started destroying the Communist Party, our people and Russia.

'And as a result we see the mess we have now.'

Crisis: Armed pro-Russian rebels ride a tank in downtown Donetsk, Ukraine. Dzhugashvili has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for creating the crisis

And in a further blast at the Russian authorities, Dzhugashvili went on to blame Putin for the current crisis in the Ukraine, and claimed the Russian President was more concerned with his public image than politics.

He said: 'As for Putin, his shoes are too big for him. What's he doing? What is he aiming at?

'He has fallen out with our native nation - with Ukraine. What sort of leaders do we have?

'There are no clever people in our country's management, only thieves. To fall out with Ukraine - I do not approve of it.

'If you wanted Crimea back, you should have started with legal moves, not military action.

'Go and study the legal ground, how it happened that Crimea was given away in the first place.'

He was referring to Nikita Krushchev's move in 1954 to move the Black Sea peninsula from Russian to Ukrainian jurisdiction inside the USSR.

Dzhugashvili went on to say that if Russia wanted to get Crimea back, 'it could have been done in a peaceful way. Putin could have paid Ukraine from his vast oil and gas reserves'.

He added: 'It could have been bought after all, it was possible to do something,' said Dzhugashvili, who uses Stalin's real family name.

'But it was wrong to grab it in such a devious way, and now they want 'Small Russia' too.'

'We see him skiing, in a plane, then in a submarine, next without a shirt. It is a lack of brains, just showing off' - Yevgeny Dzhugashvili on Vladimir Putin

Dzhugashvili was referring to an area also called Novorossiya, swathes of eastern Ukraine that is populated by ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers.

He added: 'These times have gone, it is the 21st century now and our leaders are still using old methods. Why is it happening?

'Because there are no clever people among our leaders, only tricksters and thieves. They got hold of oil and gas, and that was it.

'I can tell you how it all began with Ukraine. During the Second World War, the Russians, Ukrainians, Belarussians and other nations were all fighting in the Red Army together against Nazis, protecting their country and its resources.

'We got separated when the USSR fell. But why not to sell these resources to Ukraine at a smaller price now?

'Ancestors of these Ukrainians protected these resources. Why are you demanding such a high price, like from Germany? Is it farseeing? Not at all, and why? Because tricksters and thieves have got the power and not clever people, as I have said.

'And now they are saying that the West wants to get rid of Putin. His press secretary (Dmitry) Peskov said this.

'The aim is to get an opposite reaction from our people. They are supposed to shout, "We won't give away our Putin".

'All possible methods are used - we see him skiing, in a plane, then in a submarine, next without a shirt. It is a lack of brains, just showing off.

'They want people to feel pity. And to get support for him out of this pity.'

Support: Dzhugashvili (right) with his son Jacob (left), who backs his father's campaign to defend Stalin's name

Admission: in 1990, the then leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that the Soviet secret police had committed the Katyn massacre

Dzhugashvili's son Jacob, 42, who was educated at the Glasgow School of Art, backed his father over the lost court case regarding the Katyn massacre.

He said: ''This is what I want to tell to the British people. The episode about the Polish people shot dead in Katyn was included in the final crime change sheet of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.

'And in the verdict dated 1 October 1946 there was established the personal responsibility of accused Hermann Goering and Alfred Jodl for organisation of the Katyn crime.

'Until the beginning of the 1990s, the Katyn matter was closed.

'But suddenly Gorbachev announced the presence of some classified documents from a 'secret folder number one' which allegedly proved that Polish people in Katyn were shot by the USSR.

'These documents consist of just 14 pages. In 1995. the researcher Yury Mukhin found in these documents 10 signs that they were made up. As for today, there are 49 such signs.'

Russian courts had earlier rejected Dzhugashvili's complaints over two articles published in Novaya Gazeta in April 2009 that focused on the role of Stalin and other Soviet leaders in the mass executions.

The former Soviet Union for decades refused to admit that the Polish prisoners, shot by firing squads in a forest, were executed by Soviet secret police NKVD.

In post-Soviet Russia, the case was taken up by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office but the latter closed it under a classified order in 2004.

In April 2010, by order of then president Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv) for the first time publicized documents on the Katyn executions from the secret file.

In May that year, Medvedev handed over 67 volumes of the Katyn case to Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski.

Dzhugashvili insists he will keep defending his grandfather's name and said: 'My plan is to react to all statements against Stalin. What else do we have to do?'

Undaunted by the defeat in his bid to salvage his grandfather's name, the former Soviet air force colonel - whose father Yakov was Stalin's son - said he would continue his campaign.

He added: 'When we forwarded our papers to the European court, we were absolutely sure we would lose it.

'Who are we asking to help, after all? We did it for ourselves, to make sure we are doing something. Who can we ask for help?'

He stressed: 'My plan is to react to all statements against Stalin. What else do we have to do?

'This is the only way to show our disapproval. At least our children will not blame us on sitting quietly and in silence. So we are not going to keep silence.'

He disputes the numbers who died in Stalin's notorious gulags, and his grandfather's culpability.

He claimed: 'Labour camps were created by Trotsky and Sverdlov. Have a look at the Soviet People's Commissars statements dated 5 September 1918 and you will see for yourself.

'Stalin has used this "heritage" but his aim was to release the innocent people and to punish those who were guilty. In 1939, about 327,400 were released from labour camps.'

Dzhugashvili is frequently accused of being an apologist for his grandfather, and the Stalin era, to the extent of justifying the Soviet ruler's decision not to exchange his father Yakov who had been captured by the Nazis.

The grandson once said of his hero: 'He was a genius. My grandfather did everything he could to preserve the empire that was left from the Tsarist period.

'He industrialised it, strengthened it. And he left it owning a single shirt and two jackets.

'Compared to today's leaders, with their Swiss bank accounts, he was something like Jesus Christ.'