Putin opens Moscow’s Hammer and Sickle railway station

Vladimir Putin inaugurated Moscow’s Hammer and Sickle urban railway station on Saturday, joining Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the ceremony during celebrations for the Russian capital’s 879th anniversary.

The 7,300-square-meter facility is intended to become a major transport hub in eastern Moscow. It connects with two metro stations and tram lines and includes two passenger platforms and a concourse. Officials expect it to serve nearly 1 million people living in eastern Moscow and neighboring Vladimir region, with daily use projected to reach 100,000 by 2030.

The station’s name refers to the hammer and sickle, the principal state symbol of the Soviet Union from its creation. The emblem represented the alliance between peasants and workers and was later adopted by communist movements around the world. Although the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, hammer-and-sickle symbols remain visible on official buildings in Moscow.

The inauguration came during the election campaign and before Putin’s expected meeting with envoys from the White House. Putin is leading the Kremlin-backed United Russia party’s campaign for the first time since 2007 as it seeks to retain its constitutional majority in parliamentary elections on Sept. 20.

The article said Putin has sharply limited travel and public appearances in European Russia because of large Ukrainian drone attacks. It also said Kyiv suspended aerial bombardments of the Russian capital because U.S. mediators were arriving. Putin, who has faced accusations of rehabilitating Stalin and seeking to restore the Soviet Union’s imperial grandeur, has said: “Anyone who does not regret the dissolution of the USSR has no heart, and anyone who wants to restore it has no head.”

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Anyone who does not regret the dissolution of the USSR has no heart, and anyone who wants to restore it has no head.