Local authorities in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk have defended their opening of a new ice rink in the city against criticism that says the structure looks like a penis.
Officials opened the ice rink last Friday in front of Novosibirsk’s opera and ballet theater in time for the holiday season. Social media users immediately compared aerial drone photographs of the ice rink — which is topped by a Christmas tree — with a penis.
Locals said the ice rink was a “message from the government to its people.”
Novosibirsk’s vice-mayor Anna Tereshkova brushed off the criticism in a Facebook post Sunday.
“Real art should be arousing,” she wrote, adding that the ice rink would not be dismantled despite the backlash.
