Mobster tombstone turns up at Russian playground

Internet users in Samara have discovered a mobster tombstone at a local children’s playground. According to Alexander Khinshtein, a former State Duma deputy from the area and a current adviser to the director of Russia’s National Guard, the stone tablet will be removed by August 27.

The tombstone reportedly appeared sometime at least three years ago, honoring crime lord Konstantin Berkut’s younger brother, Vladimir, who was shot not far from the playground in April 1994. (Konstantin was killed five years later.) Khinshtein says the gravestone was installed illegally, tweeting that “obelisks to criminal authorities in the center of the city are unacceptable.”