Comments by Vladimir Kozhin, one of the Kremlin's top administrators, reflect the quirky debate among Russian officials about what to do with the Red Square mausoleum.
Kozhin told an official newspaper: “Of course, a necropolis in the center of the capital is nonsense. But whether it should be there or not, let others decide."
The statement appears to show the Kremlin's reluctance to take up the sensitive issue before December's parliamentary elections and a presidential vote next March.
Kozhin continued: "We have only just moved away from revolutions, from turbulent political battles, the country wants to live normally, to work, to be rich.
But just touch a painful subject and war will come to the entire country, rousing our parents, grandmothers, grandfathers."
Kozhin mentioned upkeep of the tomb, as well as regular treatments for the wax-like body inside, does not cost much: several tens of millions of rubles every year.
Boris Yeltsin had repeatedly tried to get the hulking, red granite structure moved from the shadow of the Kremlin walls. He wanted to bury Lenin - perhaps according to his wish to be buried next to his mother in St. Petersburg.
But Communists, for whom the mausoleum is nearly a holy shrine, vowed to galvanize protests.
Putin, for his part, said in 2001 that he opposed the removal of Lenin's body because it might disturb civil peace.
The Putin government also chose to cover it during ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2005. They were afraid of embarrassing Western leaders.
Lenin's body has been on display in the mausoleum since 1924.
Doctors embalmed his body days after he died and placed it in a mausoleum in Red Square.
Vocabulary:
embalm：对（尸体）进行防腐处理
（英语点津 Linda 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
