Russia's buried brutalist robot to be demolished in Kaliningrad

Game over: The boxy building, likened to a robot's head was built in the last years of the Soviet Union. Photo/James Heintz, AP

A hulking, never-occupied building sardonically likened to a robot's head that has loomed over the Russian city of Kaliningrad for decades is to be demolished next year, the region's governor says.

The 21-story House of Soviets was left unfinished when funding ran out in 1985 amid the Soviet Union's economic struggles. The building, which later was assessed to be structurally unsound, and became one of the city's most widely known emblems, particularly when the fan zone for the 2018 World Cup matches in Kaliningrad was set up in a vast square next to it.

The building and the Soviet Baltic Sailors Memorial, in Kaliningrad, Russia. Photo/James Heintz, AP

After standing for years as a derelict concrete shell, it got a lick of blue paint and windows when the city celebrated its 750th birthday back in 2005, but beyond that it serves mainly as a canvas for local graffiti artists.

The Brutalist building's protruding covered balconies resembling two eyes and a mouth led to it being nicknamed "The Buried Robot."

Regional governor Anton Alikhanov said demolition is expected to begin early next year and that officials are discussing the possibility of making fragments of it available as souvenirs, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported Wednesday.

The hulking, never-occupied building has loomed over the city of Kaliningrad for decades. Photo / AP

Kaliningrad is the administrative center of the Russian exclave of the same name, which is located between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea.

Two years ago when it was a host city for the Russia Football World Cup, one of the fanzones was set up under the watchful star of the bloc.

It was a "good area for the fan zone," reported one football fan at the time. "They couldn't move the building, unfortunately."

- Associated Press