Lithuania: Soviet-era statues offered a home in Russia

Image source, AFP

Image caption, The statues were badly eroded and there are no plans to put them back on the bridge, according to Vilnius's mayor
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A Russian mayor wants to give a home to four Soviet-era statues which were recently removed from a bridge in Lithuania's capital city.

Nikolai Voishchev, mayor of Sovetsk in the Kaliningrad region, has written to his counterpart in Vilnius offering to take the statues off his hands, . The figures - depicting workers, soldiers, farmers and students - had stood on the Green Bridge in Vilnius since 1952, but were taken down earlier this month, ostensibly for safety reasons. The decision caused dismay among some Russian-speaking Lithuanians, but President Dalia Grybauskaite "glad they are gone".

"If these sculptures aren't needed in Vilnius, that means we'll have them here in Sovetsk," Mr Voishchev . "There's a connection between Sovetsk's historical past and the Soviet sculptures." The city sits right on Kaliningrad's border with Lithuania. Formerly part of Germany, it was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and given its current name, having previously been called Tilsit. One senior Sovetsk official points out a possible flaw in the mayor's plan, though - the city can't afford to pay anything for the statues, so funding would have to come from a whip-round among local businesses.

The authorities in Vilnius say they've received the offer, but won't be making any decisions until the autumn. The city's mayor, Remigijus Simasius, told the he would suggest that the statues be exchanged for Lithuanian historical treasures currently in Russia's possession. But Lithuania's culture minister, Sarunas Birutis, is somewhat sceptical about the plan: "We can dream. Sometimes dreams come true."

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