WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2020) The statue of the first governor of Russian Alaska, Alexander Baranov, which was moved from the city of Sitka's downtown to the local museum, faced a much better destiny than many other monuments vandalized during recent protests in the US, the President of the Congress of Russian Americans (CRA) Natalie Sabelnik told Sputnik.
The Baranov statue was moved from its current location in Sitka's downtown to the museum on Tuesday.
In July, the city assembly adopted a resolution to relocate the Baranov statue to the Sitka Historical Society Museum, after a group of local activists urged legislators to remove it, citing mistreatment of indigenous people. In 1799, Baranov founded Sitka - called at that time Novo-Archangelsk - as the capital of the Russian colonies in North America.
"Relocation is much better than demolition, without question. In view of that situation, when a lot of statues in the US has been vandalized, I think it is good that the statue moved to a different location," Sabelnik said.
The Russian diaspora in the US submitted a petition with almost 6,000 signatures asking Sitka's authorities to leave the statue at its old place, while one of the city's assembly members introduced a resolution urging to put this issue to the local elections later this fall.
"Moving the statue to the museum is a good choice," Sabelnik said, suggesting that Sitka's residents would vote to remove it anyway.
The CRA president noted that it is a "win-win situation."
"The statue has not been destroyed and will get an appropriate place in a historic building, which was the Russian bishop house," she added.
Statues of several historical figures associated with racism have been removed, toppled or defaced across the United States amid nationwide protests fueled by multiple police-involved killings of African Americans.
