Russian Lawmaker Wants Statue of Liberty Moved to Russia

A member of Russia's parliament recently said the Statue of Liberty should be taken away from the United States and be placed in Russia.

Mikhail Sheremet, a Russian parliament (Duma) member who commanded a pro-Moscow militia in Crimea when Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014, made the statement during an interview published Saturday by the Russian-state media outlet RIA Novosti.

Sheremet's remarks came days after U.S. President Joe Biden once again condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, which was launched in February 2022. During a Thursday primetime address to the nation, Biden compared Putin's invasion of Ukraine to the recent Hamas attack on Israel, saying Putin and Hamas "both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy."

The Statue of Liberty, which sits on New York City's Liberty Island, was a gift from the French in honor of the alliance between the United States and France during the American Revolution. It has become one of the most recognizable symbols of freedom in the world, but Sheremet argued that the United States should no longer be seen as the world's standard-bearer for democracy in the world. Instead, he said the monument should be moved to Russia.

"The United States has been effectively parasitizing the economies of other states for a long time, turning from a stronghold of democracy into a stronghold of despotism and violence, bringing war and destruction around the world," Sheremet told RIA Novosti.

He added: "Therefore, the Statue of Liberty should be dismantled and moved to Russia, which today protects the rights of other peoples and countries to freedom of choice and development."

The lawmaker added that the U.S. has lost some of its standing in the world due to the policies of its current president.

"Under Biden, the United States once and for all lost its former respect in the world," Sheremet said.

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Sheremet is known for making controversial statements, including last year when he said it is hard to "negotiate" with Ukrainians and that eliminating them is the "only" way forward for the Russian war in Ukraine.

"Given the damage that they cause to [our] infrastructure, and [the harm] to the lives and well-being of our citizens, they must only be eliminated," Sheremet said in October 2022, according to the Kremlin-operated news agency TASS.

Earlier this year, Sheremet also called for a retaliatory missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's residence in Kyiv after the Kremlin claimed two Ukrainian drones had crashed into Putin's Kremlin residence.