City health officials have ordered the temporary closure of what was once the world's largest hotel because of the rats and roaches that infest many of its 3,200 rooms, Interfax reported Monday. The Hotel Rossiya, a hulking monstrosity near the Kremlin, was told to clear its rooms by July 1 and disinfect the building, the mayor's office told the agency. The city also fined Rossiya director Sergei Smirnov 1 million rubles ($500) for the hotel's unsanitary conditions, Interfax said. Soviet leaders demolished an entire city quarter of old churches and homes to build the Rossiya in the early 1970s. It often housed important Communist visitors and delegates attending Kremlin events. One newspaper at the time even dared to call it an "architectural crime'' because of the harsh contrast its boxy design posed with the graceful onion domes of nearby St. Basil's Cathedral.
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