Authorities in Moscow on Wednesday renamed the capital city’s Square of Europe as the Square of Eurasia amid Russia’s worsening relations with the West over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Square of Europe, located in front of the bustling Kievsky Railway Station, was unveiled in 2002 as part of a joint Russian-Belgian project symbolizing European unity.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s decision to rename the square comes after the flags of 48 European countries were removed from the public space in March 2023, 13 months after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into neighboring Ukraine.
A decree published on the Moscow Mayor’s Office website does not explain the reason for the name change.
However, state-affiliated media reported that “the decision reflects Moscow’s intention to give the square a new name that reflects a broader geographical concept of Eurasia.”
The independent investigative news outlet IStories called it “the first example of the de-Europeanization of place names,” though it was not immediately clear if authorities in the Russian capital had recently undertaken any similar name changes of public spaces.
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