A part of a new statue to honor Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of a famous Soviet Union's assault rifle, has been cut after locals discovered that it mistakenly depicted a German firearm of World War II.
The removal happened just three days after the monument was unveiled with much fanfare in the capital, Moscow.
The monument features a metal bas-relief behind a statue of Kalashnikov depicts the AK-47 and other weapons all supposedly designed by the engineer, who died in 2013.
But on Friday, embarrassed sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov had to admit that among them was the Sturmgewehr 44 (StG 44) assault rifle used by Nazi troops at the end of World War II.
Shcherbakov said in comments broadcast by state-run Rossiya 24 channel: "We will rectify this," adding that: "It looks like this (mistake) sneaked in from the internet."
By Friday evening, a square hole gaped where the German rifle had been depicted in the bas-relief.
Kalashnikov's weapon does have a striking resemblance to Kalashnikov’s rifle designed in 1947, and the German arms designer Hugo Schmeisser's StG 44 rifle, created in 1942, although they have major design differences.
