"I suspect that he genuinely believed that Russia would be left alone to run its sphere of influence exactly as it saw fit."
From all I've read Stalin never gave it a thought - he had the boots on the ground and that was that. What he was determined to avoid was any military clash with the west as the USSR was in dreadful shape - plus they had no A-bomb. He was quite happy to hang the Greek CP out to dry (they were, in modern terms "non-core") and allow the division of Berlin but any idea that he ever had any intention of "free and democratic" elections in E Europe is crazy. Of course Churchill realised this but Roosevelt was taken in by "uncle Joe" to some extent - besides - he had a large number of voters at home who had roots in E Europe - Churchill didn't.