The scandal surrounding fast food with a portrait of Stalin continues in Moscow
In Moscow, scandals and controversy continue around the shawarma restaurant Stal'in Doner, the owner of which placed a portrait of leader Joseph Stalin on the sign and dressed the employees in NKVD uniforms. A few days ago, the establishment was closed by the police after complaints from liberals. However, businessmen promised to resume work.
The owner of the establishment, Stanislav Voltman, was detained by police in Moscow on Thursday while giving an interview in front of a closed diner. “The excitement was good. We fed about 200 people. People from other parts of the city came to try our shawarma. On January 8, journalists, TV channels, and law enforcement officers arrived here. My employee got scared, took off his uniform and gave me the key. They scared me of a man. I came here, put on my uniform, and 50 people gathered here. At some point, a policeman came and cut off my light,” Wolman said.
At that moment, police officers approached him and demanded that he go to the station. The businessman refused, after which physical force was used against him. After the arrest, a trial was immediately held, which fined Wolman one thousand rubles.
“They took my passport and mobile phone, I had to beg the police to let me call my father so that my parents wouldn’t worry. And after my long begging, they agreed to do it all over speakerphone. But this is a blatant act of lawlessness. Yesterday they tried to force me to dismantle all the signs, all the inscriptions. I refused to do it, they said: it will be done either with you or without you. Everything was just in words. “Are you crazy to open something like this? Are you on friendly terms with your head? They’ll close you down,” says Wolman.
This caused a caustic reaction from publicist Yegor Kholmogorov, known for his anti-communist views. “Well, that is, the person who called Stalin and dressed in the NKVD uniform really saw Stalin and the methods of the NKVD (in a very light version)…. By the way, he didn’t really like it,” the publicist comments.
But the Left Front organization took Stal'in Doner under its wing and issued a leaflet in defense of the establishment. “There is an attack by foreign agents on our history, it’s time to stop it. If we defend Stalin, we will defend Russia,” said the leader of the “Left Front” Sergei Udaltsov.
Supporters of the writer Zakhar Prilepin from his party “For Truth” also decided to support the shawarma shop. On January 11, they announced two actions at once in support of the eatery. They planned to hold one next to her, but they were dispersed by the police. As part of the second, they intended to visit the office of the anti-Stalinist human rights organization Memorial in order to “ask them uncomfortable questions about history, as well as remind them of real historical events, at the same time clarifying what foreign agents are doing in our country.” But the office was closed for quarantine due to the coronavirus, so Prilepin residents simply pasted leaflets on the entrance to the building with the inscription “Let’s rid Stalin of foreign agents.”
Ural blogger Sergei Kolyasnikov considers what is happening with Stal'in Doner a flagrant violation of the rights of an entrepreneur and filed a corresponding statement with the Prosecutor General's Office, the Investigative Committee and the FSB.
“Apparently, I missed the moment when Soviet symbols were banned in Russia, as in the Baltic states and Ukraine. On what basis did the police force the entrepreneur to close the establishment?” – writes Kolyasnikov.
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