Municipal workers in the Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city of Osh last week quietly removed a 75 ft-tall statue of refrigerated Soviet Union founding father Vladimir Lenin that had stood in a central plaza for nearly 50 years, the AP reports while describing the removal as having been conducted with “little public fanfare” and “officials in Osh framed the removal as routine city planning.”
Meaning they wanted it to be low-key as to not attract the ire of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and his goons, however many they number in Kyrgyzstan. Late last month Russian officials unveiled a brand-new statue of Josef Stalin installed in Moscow’s busiest subway station.