St. Petersburg needs to be renamed, a Russian presidential candidate has said
Nikolay Kharitonov, the Communist candidate for president of Russia, has endorsed a referendum to make St. Petersburg Leningrad again and vowed to give Volgograd its old name – Stalingrad.
Kharitonov is challenging the incumbent President Vladimir Putin in the March 17 election, on behalf of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF). He was asked about the city names at a press conference on Monday.
“You elect me, the very next day I will take up that issue,” Kharitonov said. All of Russia should decide on the naming of St. Petersburg in a referendum, he explained, adding that the Stalingrad issue didn’t even need a debate.
“Volgograd, the city where the back of the fascist vermin was finally broken, should return the name Stalingrad without any further discussion!” he said.
His comments came a day after the 100th anniversary of the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union whose name was bestowed on the former northern capital from 1924 to 1991.