French far-right leader, on visit to Ukraine, compares prominently displayed statue of Bolshevik hero in downtown Kiev to a statue of Hitler in Tel Aviv
ader Vladimir Lenin still erect on Khreshchatyk, the capital's main street.
The 71-year-old National Front leader, who attended a weekend congress of the obscure Social-Nationalist Party in Lviv, heartland of Ukraine's own nationalist movements, called for a fight against both communism and U.S. influence.
'Since communism is a threat for the whole world, not just for Ukraine … I was astonished and shocked to see that communist statues and emblems still stand on I don't know what historical or aesthetic pretexts,' Le Pen told a news conference.
'A Lenin statue … in Kyiv to me seems as shocking as having a statue of Adolf Hitler in Tel Aviv.'
A towering statue of Lenin on Kyiv's main square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, was toppled with considerable difficulty in 1991 in the final months of Soviet rule, but a smaller monument remains off Khreshchatyk near Besarabka market.
Earlier in Lviv, western Ukraine, Le Pen laid a wreath to victims of Stalinism and was cheered by nationalists parading through the cobbled streets.
Young people wore paramilitary fatigues, while the elderly were in uniforms of the Ukrainian Insurrection Army, which fought against both Nazi and Soviet troops in World War Two.
Moderate nationalists spearheaded Ukraine's drive for independence. But their backing has since dwindled. Support for extreme nationalists is confined to western Ukraine, with one group securing election of several members in the national parliament.
The fortunes of Le Pen's own party have faded after his deputy Bruno Megret split and formed a rival group last year. It collected 5.7 percent of the vote in the 1999 European election compared to the 15 percent Le Pen scored in the first round of the 1995 French presidential election.
