Siberian selfie enthusiast destroys Lenin monument

MOSCOW–A Lenin statue, headless after an attack by a drunk Russian, has now lost its torso after a selfie-happy Siberian tried to pose alongside the image of the iconic Soviet leader, a local official said Monday.

“A young man wanted to have his picture with Lenin, so he climbed up onto the monument’s pedestal,” the official from Siberia’s Moryakovsky village told AFP on condition of anonymity. “He then lost his balance and hung on by grabbing Lenin’s torso.”

Both the torso and the selfie-taker then fell down, with the latter ending up in hospital with a fractured leg and wrist, the official added.

The Soviet era monument, located some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Siberian city of Tomsk, has gone through a rough patch in recent months. In May, the three-meter-tall monument lost its head to a drunken man who pounded it with a hammer.

“We don’t find this funny,” the local official said.