The Moscow Metro is putting on a show for passengers on Saturday as it celebrates 75 years, but the showpiece opening of two new stations has been quietly put off.
Muscovites will be able to buy special retro tickets, ride in a vintage car from the subway's early years, and hear themed poems and songs over the public address system.
There will even be a concert at Kropotkinskaya station, which was on the first line to open, from Sokolniki to Park Kultury, in 1935.
But the planned opening of the Dostoyevskaya and Marina Roshcha stations, expected to be the centerpiece of the anniversary events, has been postponed indefinitely.
The city originally intended to open the stations last year, but the financial crisis pushed back the completion of the work to this spring. The subway's press service said in February that the stations had been finished and the official opening will occur on May 15 to mark the metro's 75th anniversary.
According to a metro management source, the delay is due to "overly aggressive murals at Dostoyevskaya station." The source said on Thursday that the illustrations of Fyodor Dostoevsky's works, which include the classics Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, were felt to be "too gloomy."
A source in the Moscow city administration suggested, however, that problems had arisen with the completion of engineering works.
He said it was unclear when the issues would be resolved.
MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti)
