Hold My Vodka

A Moscow art teacher reportedly told a 12-year-old boy to stop drawing the Statue of Liberty because it represented an “enemy country.”

According to Russian Telegram news outlet Ostorozhno Novosti, the boy was working on a drawing of the famous American monument during an art class when his teacher questioned his choice.

She allegedly asked whether he sympathized with the United States and instructed him to draw Russia’s Motherland Calls monument instead — the enormous Soviet statue in Volgograd depicting a woman holding a sword.

The boy refused.

Apparently unwilling to give up, the teacher reportedly offered a compromise: he could keep the Statue of Liberty, but he should replace its torch with a sword to make the drawing more patriotic.

According to the boy’s mother, when she raised the incident with his homeroom teacher, he laughed and described it as “patriotic education.”

The incident is based on the mother’s account, and there is no indication that drawing the Statue of Liberty is officially prohibited in Russian schools.

Meanwhile, on October 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a business forum that “everything that isn’t prohibited is allowed” in Russia.

Apparently, that includes the Statue of Liberty — provided she’s properly armed.

Sources: Ostorozhno Novosti | TV Rain — Putin’s October 15 remarks