Russian Governor Shows off New Stalin Statue to 'Honor' History

The death mask of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is exhibited at a museum in his hometown of Gori, Georgia March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo
The death mask of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is exhibited at a museum in his hometown of Gori, Georgia March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo
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Russian Governor Shows off New Stalin Statue to 'Honor' History

The death mask of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is exhibited at a museum in his hometown of Gori, Georgia March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo
The death mask of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is exhibited at a museum in his hometown of Gori, Georgia March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo

A new monument to Soviet-era leader Josef Stalin is set to be erected soon in a city in northwest Russia following what the regional governor there said were "appeals from the public".

Vologda Governor Georgy Filimonov published video on Friday showing workers putting the finishing touches to a life-sized statue of the Georgian-born ruler, who ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist from 1924 until he died in 1953, Reuters reported.

Filimonov, who was appointed to his post last year by President Vladimir Putin, said the statue will be erected in the historic city of Vologda, which has a population of around 300,000 and lies roughly 275 miles (450 km) north of Moscow.

"This decision was triggered by appeals from the public to us," Filimonov wrote on his Telegram channel.

He said the statue would stand near a house where Stalin lived from 1911 to 1912 when exiled in the province for revolutionary activity.

Stalin oversaw rapid industrialisation and victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two but was also responsible for the deaths of millions in political purges, labour camps and famine, according to historians.

In his post, Filimonov seemed to anticipate push-back to the new statue.

"With all due understanding of the ambiguous interpretation of the role of (this) personality, we must recognize the great achievements, know the history of our country, (and) honor and be proud of it," he wrote.

Videos previously published by Filimonov demonstrate an affinity for Soviet leaders and photographs of secret police chiefs Lavrentiy Beria and Felix Dzerzhinsky hang on the walls of his office. He has dubbed a painting of himself shaking hands with Stalin, which hangs in his reception room, as "conceptual."

Filimonov also said on Friday that there were plans to install a monument to Ivan IV, a 16th-century Russian tsar under whom construction of Vologda's Kremlin began.

Popularly known as Ivan the Terrible, his reign was marked by violent purges of the Russian nobility and failed wars against Sweden and Poland.



Bull Sharks Linger in Warming Sydney Waters

A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
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Bull Sharks Linger in Warming Sydney Waters

A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)

Bull sharks are lingering off Sydney's beaches for longer periods each year as oceans warm, researchers said Friday, predicting they may one day stay all year.

The predators are migratory, swimming north in winter when Sydney's long-term ocean temperatures dip below 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) to bask in the balmier waters off Queensland.

A team of scientists looked at 15 years of acoustic tracking of 92 tagged migratory sharks in an area including Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbour.

Records show the sharks now spend an average of 15 days longer off Sydney's coast in summer than they did in 2009, said James Cook University researcher Nicolas Lubitz.

"If they're staying longer, it means that people and prey animals have a longer window of overlap with them."

Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database.

There have been more than 1,200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death.

Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment.

Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said.

"If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales," Lubitz said.

"So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney," he added.

"While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney."

Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south.

There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said.

Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of receivers dotted around parts of the Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings on a mobile app of their presence at key locations.