Georgia's Culture Ministry says that a monument to Soviet dictator and native son Josef Stalin taken down three years ago will be restored.
The ministry's spokeswoman, Elena Samkharadze, said today that the monument in Stalin's birthplace of Gori will be restored by December 21, his birthdate.
The statue was torn down in 2010 amid a crackdown on Soviet-era monuments launched by pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili.
Its restoration is part of a rollback of Saakashvili's legacy after last fall's parliamentary vote that his party lost to a coalition headed by Russia-friendly billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who became the prime minister.
Saakashvili's presidential term does not end until October, but his authority has been further weakened by a constitutional reform that has shifted powers from the presidency to Parliament and the prime minister.
