As Moscow puts a Pushkin statue up for a vote, officials will also use it to test key software ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections
The Moscow mayor’s office website said Moscow will hold a vote on August 28, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., on whether to move the Alexander Pushkin monument to the other side of Tverskaya Street. Residents can take part either online or at one of 132 polling stations opening specifically for the vote.
Residents will decide whether the monument should remain where it currently stands or move back across the street to its original spot. Film director Nikita Mikhalkov proposed the move to the Moscow mayor’s office.
“In my view, the very fact that the Pushkin monument was placed on the site of the demolished bell tower of the famous Strastnoy Monastery is not quite right,” Mikhalkov said. “I’m convinced that Pushkin himself would not have approved of this. Moving the monument back to its former location will mark the restoration of historical justice and bring peace to the soul of the great genius.”
The mayor’s office said the vote will also test the remote electronic voting system ahead of the State Duma elections in September.
Residents’ participation in testing the system would help specialists determine whether it needs further fine-tuning ahead of the September elections. It would also let them work through all possible scenarios of the system’s behavior under different conditions.
The Pushkin monument was unveiled on Tverskoy Boulevard in 1880, originally standing across from the Strastnoy Monastery. The monastery was demolished in the 1930s, and in 1950 the monument was relocated to the other side of Tverskaya Street, onto the site of the monastery’s demolished bell tower.
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