Moscow plans to build monument to Georgians who perished in WWII

Instead of the ruined Memorial of Glory, a monument to Georgian soldiers who perished during the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union (World War II) will be erected on the Poklonnaya Mount in Moscow. This was announced by Mikhail Khubutiya, a member of the Board of Guardians of the future monument, President of the Union of Georgians in Russia, who explained that the decision was made on February 2 at the first sitting of the working group on creation of the monument.

It will be erected instead of the Memorial of Glory, blown up in December 2009 in Kutaisi on decision of Georgian authorities. Mr Khubutiya emphasized that it would be an absolutely new monument, as reported by the "Interfax".

The monument to perished Georgian citizens was built in Kutaisi in mid-1980s. Out of 700,000 soldiers sent by Georgia to war fronts almost a half never returned home.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia named the demolition of the monument in Kutaisi "an act of state vandalism." Russian Premier Vladimir Putin promised to restore the ruined monument in Moscow, while Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov positively reacted to Putin's words and did not exclude that the Poklonnaya Mount could be the place for it.

However, sculptor Merab Berdzenishvili, author of the memorial blown up in Kutaisi, objected to its restoration anywhere. As explained by Kira Berdzenishvili, his wife, "because of his health condition, Merab cannot take part in a project of this scale any more. Since he can't do it himself, he's against doing it by others."