I was a little surprised to see a hammer and sickle in the background of the first picture.

The soviet emblems are to be seen everywhere in today's Russia, train stations, public buildings, squares - hammer and sickles, statues of Lenine showing the way, statues of the deserving miner, etc.

I suppose people are actually attached to them, and are proud of their history. They remind them of the good old times, when everyone had a job, first-rate education, free medical care, when society actually took care of its people.

Why those emblems should be taken down, I have no idea. Would a properly Western-formatted mind explain that to me ?