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Sputnik Pavel Bednyakov
The Mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, called for the closure of the project of erecting a memorial in Lubyanika Square in the city center, which overlooks the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service known as the “KGB previously”.
On Thursday, the Moscow authorities launched an electronic voting process that allows city residents to choose between returning the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, chief of the Soviet security police between 1917 and 1922, who was removed with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, or erecting a statue of Prince Alexander Nevsky, who defeated the German invaders in the 13th century. .
In a statement issued on Friday evening, Sobyanin said that after about two days of voting, “supporters of Alexander Nevsky” were advancing by a small margin, but at the same time it became clear that public opinion was almost split into two halves and that the vote “is turning into a confrontation between supporters of different opinions.” “.
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He added, “Different views on history are inevitable, but the historical monument should increase the solidarity of the community, not divide it, so I think it is right to stop this process and leave Lubyanka Square as it is now.”
The vote, which began on Thursday morning and was supposed to continue until next Thursday, showed that 55% of the participants in it voted in favor of the Alexander Nevsky memorial.
The vote came after a group of political and social figures called on municipal authorities earlier this month to return the Dzerzhinsky statue, arguing that its removal was illegal.
On the other hand, a number of public figures opposed the restoration of Dzerzhinsky’s monument, as “the founder of the Soviet state terror system”, who “personally supervised the mass persecution.”
Source: Agencies
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