Activists paint Moscow’s ‘Stalin Tower’ with Ukraine colours

Commuters saw a Ukrainian flag flying at the top of the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment building in Moscow, Russia this morning. Photograph: Itar-Tass/Barcroft Media

20 August 2014

Text Tom Balmforth for RFE/RL

Authorities in the Russian capital have detained four people after climbers scaled to the top of one of the city’s Seven Sisters high-rises to paint it blue and yellow. Tom Balmforth reports for RFE/RL.

In the latest act of solidarity with Ukraine in Russia, a group of people have apparently scaled the heights of one of Moscow’s iconic Stalin-era skyscrapers, hoisted a Ukrainian flag over it, and painted the Soviet star at its peak yellow and blue.

The incident took place under cover of darkness in the early morning hours of 20 August at a massive 32-floor elite apartment building on the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment in downtown Moscow in the vicinity of both the Kremlin and the Federal Security Service headquarters.

It is not yet clear who was behind the stunt, although police have reportedly arrested four young Russians with climbing gear, all of them believed to be residents of Moscow and the surrounding region.

To hoist the flag and paint the star, the climbers presumably would have had to scale the 176-metre building — or find another way to reach its peak.

An unidentified Moscow police official told the Interfax news agency that the group used “an internal staircase” to reach the top floor of the building and then used “special equipment” to reach its spire.

A video posted by various Russian media purports to show one of the pranksters parachuting down from the height of the Stalin-era building after daybreak.

WATCH: A Ukrainian Flag Flies High In Moscow

The detained quartet deny their guilt, according to press reports. An unidentified police official told the ITAR-TASS agency that the group claims they were simply thrill-seekers and had nothing to do with the stunt. “The two young men and two girls say they jumped from a high building with parachutes. They say they didn’t hoist any flag and didn’t paint the flag,” the official said.

Some media reports suggested that the perpetrator might be the Ukrainian stunt daredevil Mustang Wanted. But he has denied involvement on his Facebook page.

Despite the confusion, the caper was welcomed by liberal bloggers, many of whom have watched uneasily for months as the Kremlin has annexed Ukrainian territory and supported a separatist uprising in its east.

“It’s the beginning of change,” a Twitter user with the handle Reincarnation tweeted on the microblogging site.

Here are some more tweets from the scene.

One of Stalin’s “seven-sisters” painted in Ukrainian colors & w/ flag overnight RT @unkn0wnerror: pic.twitter.com/MiWUWvs9iI

— Glenn Kates (@gkates) August 20, 2014

Ещё несколько видов обновлённой московской высотки via Сергей Шахиджанян. pic.twitter.com/C0ZAAVCJN3

— Владимир Варфоломеев (@Varfolomeev) August 20, 2014

A worker, sent to take the Ukrainian flag down from skyscraper in Moscow, makes a selfie before doing it pic.twitter.com/f1AWW3tJH0

— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) August 20, 2014

#Ukraine flag is already taken down from the #Moscow skyscraper, “hooligans” said to be detained @martin_camera pic.twitter.com/44v4F6kNOc |EMPR

— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) August 20, 2014

The incident marks the latest in a series of acts of solidarity with Kiev in Russia, despite the patriotic fervour that accompanied Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and support for the separatist insurgency.

In other examples, some opposition activists have taken to singing the Ukrainian national anthem when they are arrested.

Last week, Andrey Makarevich, frontman for the popular band Mashina Vremeni (Time Machine) traveled to eastern Ukraine where he performed for internally displaced children, a move that saw him branded as a “traitor” by Russian lawmakers and pro-establishment musicians.

After Malaysia Airlines MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down in rebel-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, the liberal opposition Novaya gazeta newspaper ran the controversial cover page: “Forgive Us Netherlands.” The majority of the 298 people killed on MH17 were Dutch.

And the popular Russian rapper and songwriter Noize MC also performed last week at a music festival in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, with a Ukrainian flag, drawing accusations in Russia of “betraying” his homeland.

“I went to the edge of the stage and a girl in the crowd gave me a yellow-blue flag,” Noize MC, whose real name is Ivan Alexeyev, wrote on his VK page.

“As a token of friendship between our peoples…I of course took it.”

Ivan Alexeyev added that by playing in Ukraine, and accepting the flag, he “wanted to show that our people are brothers and friends. What we do not need is to fear and hate each other.” He added: “I’ve never danced to the tune of the state, no matter what kind of state it was. I am for the people.”

It is unclear whether the detained climbers will be charged with vandalism.

According to an online poll conducted by the liberally-oriented Ekho Moskvy radio station, 74% think they should be released provided they repaint the star.