Kaliningrad has an ‘eternal flame’ monument that could withstand the deepest snows. Because it's fake.

Reporters from the newspaper Novyi Kaliningrad have discovered a curious World War II monument in the town of Pereslavskoe: a fake eternal flame. The monument looks like countless others across Russia, but where a fire should be burning, local authorities affixed a cardboard sign showing cartoon flames.

According to local officials, a real fire does burn at the center of the monument during national holidays, but this requires using a portable gas tank, as the installation isn't connected to local gas lines. Next year, regional officials say they plan to connect the monument to gas lines, after which the flame will always burn, and the cardboard sign can be discarded. (Perhaps they can burn it?)

Kaliningrad journalists say there are 31 such monuments in the Russian exclave (mostly “eternal flames” installed by the Soviet government), many of which were never connected to local gas lines.