Soviet Army Monument in Bulgaria's Plovdiv Gets 'Uncloaked'

Officers from Bulgaria's fire rescue have removed the enormous red cloak placed over the Soviet Army Monument in second-largest city Plovdiv.

Saturday morning Plovdiv residents woke up to see the 10.5 m tall main figure of the monument draped in a red cloak, with a black scarf over his mouth.

Police officers had to summon emergency rescuers in order to undrape the sculpture of a lone Soviet soldier, informally known as Alyosha.

At present, no group has assumed responsibility for the act, which must have demanded considerable technical prowess.

A preliminary investigation has been launched, informed the Plovdiv police.

A string of half-joking, half-serious decorations of the Soviet Army Monument in Bulgarian capital Sofia have provoked both approval and sharp criticism.

In the latest such occasion, in August, a group of bronze figures in the Sofia monument was sprayed pink as a self-styled "excuse" for the brutal crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring.

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