Andrey Sakharov statue disappears from Moscow park, supposedly moved to Artsakh in South Caucasus

A statue of Andrey Sakharov, a Soviet nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize laureate and human rights activist, has disappeared from Moscow’s Muzeon park, says Memorial.

Today, 21 May, would be Sakharov’s 101st birthday. He died in 1989. Yekaterina Gushchina, a local artist and tour guide, noticed that the statue was not there earlier today.

“The park’s officials told us they did not know the statue was removed and claimed it was still there. The park’s security said the statue had been removed due to renovation earlier,” says Memorial.

The park’s public affairs office says the statue was delivered to its creator Grigory Pototsky “for temporary exhibition free of charge.”

The photo of an identical statue shared on social media shows it is now in Stepanakert, a city in the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, internationally recognised to be part of Azerbaijan but controlled by a pro-Armenian government. It is unclear whether it is the same statue.

The Physics department of the Moscow State University cancelled lectures scheduled for today without disclosing the reason yesterday, independent student communities report. The topic was Sakharov’s scientific achievements, including the creation of an H-bomb, his cosmological model of the universe and his model of international security.

An exhibition commemorating Sakharov’s 100th birthday was cancelled in Moscow last year by the city authorities. The exhibition would place Sakharov’s photos and quotes at the Clear Ponds, a park in Moscow’s downtown. The pictures were instead posted on the Internet. The Sakharov Centre sent an inquiry to the local department of culture asking to explain this; the department was not immediately available to comment on the matter.