The Little Mermaid and the Russian Flag

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pro-Russian sentiments have shown up in Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania – and now, Denmark. 

 

The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, one of Denmark’s most notable landmarks, has a Russian flag painted across its base. The colors of the red, white and blue ensign were daubed overnight on Thursday on the rock on which the statue of the heroine from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale rests. 

 

The statue, which sits in the relatively secluded harbour of Langelinie in Copenhagen, has had a colorful past. The mermaid’s head was stolen in 1964, and her arm cut off in 1984. In 1998, vandals removed her head again, but it was later returned, before the statue was blown up in 2003. The statue has been tagged and painted many times, most recently in 2020 with the mysterious inscription “racist fish”.