You're reading: BBC: Luhansk is where Lenin still stands

BBC: Luhansk is where Lenin still stands

By BBC.

Published Dec. 18, 2013 at 12:02 am

Folk singers sing at a barricade set by opposition activists on Independence Square in Kiev on December 17, 2013. Ukraine's embattled President Viktor Yanukovych sought Tuesday a multi-billion-dollar lifeline from Russia's Vladimir Putin that could relieve a brewing economic crisis but also stoke huge pro-EU protests roiling Kiev streets. The ex-Soviet nation of 46 million has been at the heart of a furious diplomatic tug of war since Yanukovych's shock decision last month to ditch a landmark EU partnership agreement and seek closer ties with its traditional master Russia.. AFP PHOTO/ VIKTOR DRACHEV

Photo by AFP

In the centre of Luhansk, I see no barricades, no pro-Europe protest camps. What I do see makes me think I'm back in the USSR.

As I walk around the town, I count four Lenin statues, I take a stroll down Soviet Street and Young Communist Lane. All the street signs and the shop fronts are in Russian. But then Russia is close by; the EU feels very distant.

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