Flowers, candles and portraits of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk and Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska appeared outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Wednesday, state media reported.
Kirk, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who founded the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot dead while speaking at a university campus in Utah last week. Zarutska was stabbed to death on a North Carolina train in August, after which Trump called for her killer to receive the death penalty.
Beneath one of Kirk’s portraits in Moscow, a quote in Russian attributed to him read, “Crimea was always a part of Russia. It should never have been handed over. Russians who want to be a part of Russia live in Crimea.” It was not immediately clear when or if Kirk made the statement, though he had previously criticized American support for Ukraine.
Another photo described him as “Christian, Conservative, Human.”
The Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported that it was unclear who placed the makeshift memorial outside the embassy.
Nearby, a fringe nationalist group held an anti-American demonstration. Some protesters waved Confederate flags and black-and-orange St. George ribbons, a symbol of Soviet victory in World War II.
The demonstration was organized by the National Liberation Movement, a pro-Kremlin group. Organizers said it was their first rally since Trump took office in January and also claimed to mark what they called the “Day of the Repressed Peoples of the United States.”
Pro-Kremlin figures claim to have coined that term in honor of the nearly 23,000 soldiers who were killed or wounded during the Battle of Antietam in the U.S. Civil War.
It was not immediately clear if the memorial and the demonstration were connected.
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