A lone protester was detained at the unveiling of a new seven-meter statue to the inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle in Moscow’s city center on Tuesday, the opposition-leaning Dozhd television channel reports.
The 35 million ruble ($538,000) monument to Mikhail Kalashnikov, installed earlier this week, was unveiled by Russia’s Culture Minister and representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church near the Mayakovskaya metro station on Tuesday morning.
The demonstrator who was holding a sign reading “Designer of Weapons = Designer of Death,” told journalists at the scene he was “against any military demonstration and any propaganda of Russia’s military might.”
The man was soon detained by the police, who did not provide a reason for the detention, Dozhd reports.
The gold statue depicts Kalashnikov brandishing his trademark assault rifle.
Salavat Shcherbakov, who designed the monument, is also responsible a controversial 2016 monument to Russia’s medieval Prince Vladimir just outside the Kremlin.
