Police guarding Lenin's mausoleum were in for a surprise Wednesday, when a visitor tried to contact the spirit world to save Russia from impending doom.
Officers' attention was first drawn to the woman from the Chuvashia republic after she unfurled a prayer rug on the paving stones by the mausoleum and prepared to pray, a police spokesperson told Interfax.
The 35-year-old woman was prevented from holding her seance, even though she attested that it was to protect the Russian state.
Fearing for her mental condition, police rang doctors, who whisked her away to a psychiatric clinic.
Several hours later, a drunken Ukrainian man was apprehended at the same spot after throwing empty beer bottles at Lenin's Mausoleum and criticizing Russian leadership, RIA-Novosti said. The man was also taken to a psychiatric facility.
Bookmakers are taking bets on whether Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin will be reburied in 2013, Oleg Zhuravsky, president of the National Association of Bookmakers, told Izvestia.
At present, more than 5,000 bets have been placed, Zhuravsky said, adding that the number of bets has risen since recently installed Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky spoke out in favor of reburying Lenin and turning his mausoleum into a museum.
