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Switzerland

Flipping The Bird In St. Moritz: 'Stinkefinger' Sculpture Salutes Jet-Set Skiers

Nikolai Winter can be sure his latest sculpture will get some attention: located on a mountaintop at one of the jet set’s favorite ski resorts, his “elegant” female hand is flipping the bird to all the rich and famous who whiz by.

What are you saying? (Nikolai Winter)
What are you saying? (Nikolai Winter)


*NEWSBITES

Visitors to the exclusive ski resort of St. Moritz, in Switzerland, are in for a surprise: the sight of a large sculpture of a woman's hand – giving the finger!

The artwork by Basel-based Swiss artist Nikolai Winter sits atop Berg Muottas Muragl in Samedan (St. Moritz). The anthracite-colored sculpture, which is 2.3 meters (7.55 feet) high, was flown in by helicopter.

On his website, Winter states: "Hands especially fascinate me. They can be shown in various postures and sometimes even have a symbolic character. Therefore I use their communicative impact to give my sculptures aura and expression."

Sure, but in this case, the nail-polished hand leaves little doubt to what it "symbolizes," though one might wonder whether the finger is being given by or to those skiing past.

Winter is quoted in German as saying: "In a sexy, provocative but elegant way that sort of embodies the Jet Set a ‘doigt d'honneur" now sits perched above the über-chic resort of St. Moritz." Winter used the somewhat more sonorous French term "doigt d'honneur" to denote the digit rather than the inelegant-sounding German term "Stinkefinger."

Winter's striking sculpture is now the fourth artwork on the 2,400-meter (7,874-foot) Muottas Muragl -- but by far the most "expressive."

Read the full story in German by Anna Warnholtz

Photo - Nikolai Winter

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Ukrainians In Occupied Territories Are Being Forced To Get Russian Passports

Reports have emerged of children, retirees, and workers being forced by the Russian military and occupying administration to obtain Russian Federation passports, or face prison, beating or loss of public benefits.

Image of a hand holding a red Russian passport.

Russian passport

Iryna Gamaliy

It's referred to as: "forced passportization." Reports are accumulating of police and local authorities in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine requiring that locals obtain Russian passports. Now new evidence has emerged that Ukrainians are indeed being coerced into changing their citizenship, or risk retribution from occupying authorities.

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Ever since late September, when President Vladimir Putin announced Russia hadd unilaterally annexed four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine (Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson), Moscow has been seeking ways to legitimize the unrecognized annexation. The spreading of Russian passports is seen as an attempt to demonstrate that there is support among the Ukrainian population to be part of Russia.

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