Moscow to unveil replacement for destroyed Georgia WWII monument in Dec

A Moscow World War Two memorial to "replace" a monument blown up in the Georgian city of Kutaisi last year is likely to go up in December, the capital's vice-mayor said on Monday.

The 46-meter Soviet-era WWII memorial in Kutaisi, Georgia's second-largest city, was demolished to make space for a new parliamentary building. Russia denounced the demolition as an "act of vandalism," accusing Georgia of a "symbolic attack" on the memory of Georgians who died in the war.

The monument may be unveiled in Moscow's Poklonnaya Gora memorial park on December 19, a year to the day from the destruction of the original, Valery Vinogradov said.

A government-run contest chose the design for the Moscow monument in July.

Tensions between Russia and Georgia culminated in a brief war in August 2008 over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

http://en.rian.ru