The Russian ally Kyrgyzistan has quietly dismantled the largest monument in Central Asia in Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary founder of the Soviet Union.
The former Soviet states of the region seek to strengthen their national identities, to rename cities which have names with Russian sounding and to replace the statues of Soviet figures with local and national heroes.
Russia, which has military bases in Kyrgyzstan, strives to maintain its influence there in the face of competition from China and the West and in the midst of its invasion of Ukraine.
The officials of the city of Osh – where the 23 -meter (75 feet) monument was standing in the central square – warned of “politicizing” the decision to “move”.
Osh is the second largest city in the mountainous country without coast.
The figure has been quietly withdrawn overnight and should be “moved,” said SSH officials.
The decision “should not be politicized,” said the town hall, highlighting several other cases in Russia “where Lenin monuments have also been dismantled or moved”.
“This is a common practice aimed at improving the architectural and aesthetic appearance of cities,” he said in a press release.
Despite some attempts to desoviet the region, the monuments and the statues of the Soviet characters are common throughout the region, with monuments in Lenin widespread in the vast majority of the cities of Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan was annexed and incorporated into the Russian Empire in the 19th century, then was part of the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
He acquired his independence with the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
