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WORLD NEWS Diaranson 5 october 2022

Finnish city removes last publicly displayed statue of Lenin

(AP) — A city in south- Moscow. over the years but remained
eastern Finland on Tues- in the park until Kotka’s city
day removed the country’s It was presented to Kotka in council decided to have it
last publicly displayed 1979 as a gift from friendship removed. Other European
statue of Russian revolu- city Tallinn, then the capital countries have moved to get
tionary leader Vladimir of the Estonian Soviet repub- rid of their remaining Soviet-
Lenin following pressure lic and now the capital of the era monuments since Russia
from residents in the wake Baltic nation of Estonia. invaded Ukraine more than
of Russia’s war in Ukraine. seven months ago.
Presenting such statues was
A group of construction a common practice by Mos- Finland and Russia share a
workers in Kotka, a port city cow, particularly in the 1970s 1,340-kilometer (830-mile)
of 52,000 not far from the and 1980s, to underline the land border and a complicat-
border with Russia, hoisted Finnish-Soviet friendship in ed history.
the statue into a truck and the post-WWII era.
drove it away to a warehouse Finland remained a part of
of a local museum. The Lenin statue is located in the Russian Empire as an leadership recognized the The southern Finnish indus-
a central Kotka park adjacent autonomous Grand Duchy Nordic’s country indepen- trial and university city of
City museum director Kirsi to a wooden house where the for over a hundred years un- dence on the last day of 1917. Tampere hosts a Lenin mu-
Niku told Finnish public Bolshevik party founder who til Dec. 6, 1917, when it de- Ahead of the Russian Revo- seum. Future Soviet dictator
broadcaster YLE that the became the Soviet Union’s clared independence in the lution, Lenin was exiled to Josef Stalin and Lenin met
bronze bust was designed first premier is said to have wake of the Russian Revolu- Finland on several occasions, for the first time in Tampere
and constructed by Estonian stayed. tion led by Lenin. living in various cities and in 1905 during a meeting of
sculptor Matti Varik in the towns across the southern Bolshevik leaders in the city.
late 1970s on orders from The statue was vandalized Lenin and the Bolshevik part of the country.

North Korea sends missile soaring over Japan in escalation

(AP) — North Korea on pan and could reach the
Tuesday conducted its U.S. Pacific territory of
longest-ever weapons test, Guam and beyond, forc-
a nuclear-capable ballistic ing the Japanese govern-
missile that flew over Ja- ment to issue evacuation
alerts and halt trains.

The South Korean and U.S.
militaries responded by
launching fighter jets which
fired weapons at a target off
South Korea’s west coast in
a show of strength against
North Korea.

The North Korean missile
launch was its most provoca-
tive weapons demonstration
this year, as it pushes to de-
velop a fully-fledged nuclear
arsenal capable of threatening
the U.S. mainland and its al- Washington and Seoul and tional community. His mili-
lies with the goal of wrest- the other involving Washing- Trains were suspended in tary separately warned that
ing concessions from those ton, Seoul and Tokyo -- off the Hokkaido and Aomori North Korea’s repeated mis-
countries, some experts say. the Korean Peninsula’s east regions until the govern- sile launches would deepen
coast last week. ment issued a notice that the its international isolation and
North Korea has test-fired North Korean missile ap- prompt Seoul and Washing-
about 40 missiles over about North Korea regards such peared to have landed in the ton to bolster their deter-
20 different launch events drills involving the United Pacific. In Sapporo city, the rence capacities.
this year as its leader, Kim States as an invasion re- prefectural capital of Japan’s
Jong Un, refuses to return to hearsal. It was expected to northernmost main island of
nuclear diplomacy with the react strongly this time be- Hokkaido, subways were also The missile’s flight distance
United States. cause both exercises involved temporarily halted, with sta- shows it has enough range
a U.S. aircraft carrier, which tions packed with morning to hit Guam, home to U.S.
The United States strongly North Korea views as more commuters. military bases that have sent
condemned North Korea’s provocative. advanced warplanes to the
“dangerous and reckless de- Japanese Prime Minister Fu- Korean Peninsula in shows
cision” to launch what it de- Japanese authorities alerted mio Kishida told reporters of force during past periods
scribed as a “long-range bal- residents in its northeast- the launch “is a reckless act of tension with North Korea.
listic missile” over Japan. ern regions to evacuate to and I strongly condemn it.” In 2017, North Korea threat-
shelters, in the first “J-alert” ened to make “an enveloping
The launch is the fifth round since 2017 when North Ko- South Korean President Yoon fire” near Guam with Hwa-
of weapons tests by North rea fired an intermediate- Suk Yeol said North Korea’s song-12 missiles amid rising
Korea in the past 10 days. range Hwasong-12 missile “reckless nuclear provoca- animosities with the then-
The testing spree is an appar- twice over Japan in a span of tions” would meet a stern Trump administration.
ent response to two sets of weeks during a previous run response from the South
military drills -- one between of weapons tests. and the broader interna-