Vladivostok removes monument to Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn at military’s request, then reinstalls it a day later

Authorities said the monument had been removed at the request of the Pacific Fleet’s leadership and veterans, who considered it “out of keeping with the themes of the memorials and monuments” along the waterfront.

Officials said the monument was being returned because it did not fit its intended site in Vera i Nadezhda Park. Its dimensions, they said, “do not fully suit the park’s current layout.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly called Solzhenitsyn a “patriot” and a nationalist “in the civilized sense of the word.”

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