On January 25, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on a petition in Ukraine to replace the bust of Russian writer Alexander Pushkin in Odessa with a monument to blogger Anton Ptushkin. “Whatever the country, such are the heroes,” she said, drawing an analogy to the film adaptation of “The Heart of a Dog” by noting that while the original setting was “the missing house,” the current situation involves “the missing country.”
Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Institute of National Remembrance published a list identifying Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov and poets Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov as “symbols of Russian imperialism.” According to Ukrainian legislation, all monuments dedicated to these historical figures must be removed from public space. The list has since been expanded to include Russian military commander Mikhail Kutuzov on November 2 and the entire Romanov family on November 9.
