An 'eternal flame' commemorating WWII soldiers in Russia has been replaced by... a cardboard painting

A Russian village has replaced an "eternal flame" on a memorial for soldiers who died in the Second World War... with a painted piece of cardboard.

The monument in the village of Pereslavskoye near Kaliningrad, which is actually only lit by a gas canister system for certain occasions, was fitted with the painting in response to an order from Vladimir Putin.

The president was worried that of roughly 4,000 eternal flame monuments around Russia, only a fifth were lit all the time, and ordered uninterrupted gas supplies to the memorials in 2014.

However, progress has been limited, leading to some creative solutions - such as the most recent one reported in the Novy Kaliningrad.

Yevgeny Maslov, the head of the regional agency for cultural heritage, said that it was the local authority's idea, and that “tastes differ”.

He said the painting will be removed in time for Victory Day on 9 May.

HT BBC

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