Vlad the Great, hint-hint
VLADIMIR PUTIN has a new neighbor: a 16-metre-tall bronze monument to Vladimir the Great, a tenth-century Slav prince. The statue stands just outside the Kremlin’s red walls. “In Soviet times it would have been Lenin,” says the sculptor, Salavat Shcherbakov.
The monument’s backers claim it commemorates the thousand-year anniversary of Vladimir’s death in 2015, but the political subtext is clear. The proto-state which Vladimir ruled was based in Kiev (it is known as Kievan Rus), and Ukraine sees him as its founding father. His face adorns Ukraine’s hryvnia note, and another monument to him already towers over the …read more
Source: The Economist
