PREVIEW - Alaskan City Of Sitka Assembly Set To Discuss Baranov Statue Relocation

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th July, 2020) Authorities of the Alaskan city of Sitka are scheduled to discuss the possibility of relocating city founder Alexander Baranov's statue on Tuesday amid stiff resistance from the Russian diaspora.

In late June, a group of activists urged Sitka authorities to remove the statue, citing mistreatment of the indigenous population during the era of colonization. In 1799, Baranov founded Sitka (then called Novo-Archangelsk) as the capital of the Russian colonies in North America.

"The issue will be discussed by the [Sitka] Assembly on July 14th," Sitka Municipal Administrator John Leach told Sputnik on Monday. "The meetings begin at 6:00 p.m. Alaska time [0200 July 15 GMT]."

The public agenda shared by Leach includes discussion of two pieces of legislation - one concerning moving the Baranov statue to the local museum and the other regarding placing an advisory proposition on the ballot in October's municipal election about removal of the statue from its current location.

The Russian diaspora in the United States has expressed strong opposition to the relocation of the statue.

"Almost 6,000 people signed our petition against the removal," the Russian Community Council of the USA (RCC) chairperson Elena Branson told Sputnik.

Meanwhile, supporters of the relocation obtained less than 3,000 signatures, she added.

Sitka is situated on Baranof Island, which is named after Baranov, who was the governor of what was then called Russian America. The group of activists that want the statue removed consists mostly of people from the Tlingit tribe.

In June, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the protection of the country's monuments, which have become a major target for protesters during a month of violent clashes and demonstrations following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year old black man, in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.

According to Trump's order, those found guilty of vandalizing statues and monuments could face 10 years in jail.

Floyd died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes in an incident captured on video that went viral.

In many cities across the country, statues depicting former Confederate generals, presidents who owned slaves, and Christopher Columbus, the fifteenth-century Italian explorer who was said to have discovered North America, have been targeted by protesters.