Putin's Destroying Russia- Literally!

Spiegel Online:

The Kremlin administration has demolished historic buildings on Moscow's Red Square without a permit -- in order to build a luxury hotel in their place. The Russian public prosecutor's office is investigating the case and now UNESCO is also looking into the destruction of part of a World Heritage Site.

Under cover of darkness, heavy army trucks rolled onto Red Square and disappeared behind huge tarpaulins. Painted with drawings of the buildings hidden behind them, the tarpaulins were meant to create the illusion that these buildings were under renovation. But the government was taking pains to keep Muscovites in the dark about what the trucks were really doing there -- in a place where the Soviet empire had once housed its defense ministry.

When the late February sun rose the next morning over the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral, the trucks had disappeared and, along with them, four of the buildings at 5 Red Square -- part of a world-famous complex of urban structures. Nothing but a gaping construction site remained where the so-called Middle Trading Rows had once stood resplendent -- neo-Russian architectural gems in the classic style, as unique as the neighboring building, Moscow's famous GUM department store.