Soviet Woman Sets Herself Afire Beside Wall of the Kremlin
A Soviet woman doused herself with a flammable liquid and set herself on fire by the Kremlin wall today, a police officer said.
A militia lieutenant standing by St. Basil’s Cathedral just off Red Square said the woman did not die as a result of the apparent suicide attempt.
The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the reasons for the unidentified woman’s action were not known.
He said she covered herself with the liquid while on the cobblestone esplanade between St. Basil’s Cathedral and the red brick wall surrounding the Kremlin after she was unable to reach Red Square. The esplanade is where West German Mathias Rust landed his single-engine Cessna on May 28, 1987, after a daring, unauthorized penetration of Soviet airspace.
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