It is part Soviet theme park, part wacky anti-Western wonderland. Stuck to the barricades outside the "Donetsk People's Republic" are several caricatures of U.S. President Barack Obama.
There is Obama as Hitler, complete with mustache. There is Obama, Bonaparte and the Fuhrer, and the words: "They all thought their nations were superior." And there is Obama as a monkey. (The monkey-Obama, visible on Friday, had disappeared by Saturday.)
Further inside, past a wall of tires, activist Vitaly Akulov stood beneath a flag of Stalin. The Soviet leader had a Kalashnikov. Wasn't he responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens? "Without a tough czar who uses harsh methods you can't build an imperium," Akulov observed. Other banners read: "F-ck EU and USA," "Donbass with Russia" and "Russians should be together!"