- Title: RUSSIA: WORKERS FIND WORLD WAR 2-ERA EXPLOSIVE AT "MOSCOW" HOTEL NEAR KREMLIN
- Date: 10th July 2005
- Summary: (W4) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (JULY 10, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. LV OF THE ADVERTISEMENT POSTER ON THE CONSTRUCTION SITE WHERE HOTEL "MOSCOW" USED TO BE 0.03 2. SLV SAPPER'S CAR LEAVING THE AREA 0.16 3. SV POLICEMAN TALKING TO MEDIA 0.21 4. LV/SLV VARIOUS OF SAPPERS AND CONSTRUCTION WORKERS REMOVING BAGS OF EXPLOSIVES (9 SHOTS) 1.22 5. LV/SLV AMBULANCES PARKED OUTSIDE THE CONSTRUCTION SITE (2 SHOTS) 1.34 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 25th July 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- Country: Russia
- Reuters ID: LVAEX6IORCX3RF8AOOZBUWC5MQM5
- Story Text: Workers find WW2-era explosive at "Moscow" hotel
near Kremlin
Workers demolishing a Stalin-era Moscow hotel on
Sunday (July 10) discovered a tonne of explosives that
would have been used to blow the building sky-high if Nazi
troops had taken the Soviet capital, media reported.
After its opening in 1935, the hotel Moskva was one of
the Soviet Union's flagship hotels and stood opposite the
Russian parliament and only a stone's throw from Red
Square.
"The boxes held only explosives without detonators so
there was no risk of an (accidental) explosion in the
hotel," a police spokesman told Russian news agencies.
NTV television showed sappers and construction workers
removing bags of explosive from the deep, muddy hole that
is all that is left of the hotel, which once sported a
distinctive facade and dominated one of the capital's main
thoroughfares.
"According to preliminary information, the explosive
was hidden in a cache during the Great Patriotic War," a
police spokesman was quoted by Itar-Tass agency as saying,
referring to World War Two. Police said they had removed a
tonne of explosive by evening.
NTV said the hotel was mined in case Adolf Hitler's
forces had taken Moscow. The German troops made it to the
outskirts in 1942, but Soviet troops stopped them pushing
into the centre.
The Soviet Union had extensive contingency plans in
case it lost the capital. Many factories, institutes and
government bodies moved into Siberia and Central Asia.
The hotel has been demolished in what officials say is
a drive to improve and modernise Moscow's tourist
facilities. Media have reported that city officials intend
to build a new hotel looking exactly the same.
Many architectural historians say the demolition is a
shameful end for a key Moscow landmark that should have
been preserved.
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