An ice maze with no entrance or exit has led online users to designate the unfinished structure a metaphor for the hardships that many Russians face.
Photographs and videos appeared online over the weekend showing children climbing over walls to play inside an ice labyrinth on the Far East island of Sakhalin. Officials told local media the maze will be finished by Dec. 29.
Online users saw the maze as representative of life in today’s Russia.
“It’s a labyrinth and an enclosure in one,” read one tweet. “It is a representation of the Russian state.”
Another Twitter user described the children as “preparing for life in the motherland.” That description echoed the most common response.
But it was a Tjournal.ru news website reader who may have provided the most compelling exegesis.
“You either have to break the rules by climbing walls or accept your parents’ help if you want to achieve anything,” the commenter wrote.
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