Moscow's mayor visited a mock-up of the city's ‘apartments of the future.’ It was weird

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin visited the VDNKh exhibition and trade center on Thursday, where he examined mock-ups of the new apartments to which Muscovites will be resettled as part of the city's controversial renovation project. Standing inside one of the life-size mock-ups, Mayor Sobyanin looked like this:

The bare walls and modest furnishings deeply amused many Internet users, and it wasn't long before comparisons to North Korea were circulating online.

The eerie vibe reminded others of the campy, surreal American television show “Twin Peaks.”

Other Internet users joked that the new apartments seem to be just as small as the Soviet-era homes Sobyanin's plan is designed to eliminate.

In another American pop culture reference, some Russians compared the new apartments to the nightmarishly low-ceiled “Floor 7 1/2” in the 1999 film “Being John Malkovich.”

Others remembered an incident last year involving Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, when he went on a tour of economy-class apartments under construction in Kazan and laughed at how pathetically small they were.

Viewing the photos of Sobyanin on Thursday, some Internet users also suggested ways to spruce up what they argued were dreary decorations.