KAZAN, Tatarstan -- A large Lenin monument has been vandalized in front of Kazan State University's main building in Tatarstan's capital, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.
The vandals covered part of the monument with black paint on April 27.
Local Communist Party members called the incident an extremist action.
The monument was erected in 1954. The first Soviet leader, Vladimir Lenin studied in Kazan for three months in 1897.
In 1925, the university was named after Lenin but in 1990 it abandoned his name.
RFE/RL reports that several Lenin monuments still standing in Russian towns and cities have been vandalized recently.
April 22 was the 139th anniversary of Lenin's birth.