Monument to Walt Whitman erected in Moscow to mark Obama visit

A monument to U.S. poet Walt Whitman has been installed in Moscow to coincide with the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama, Russia's Channel One reported on Monday.

MOSCOW, July 6 (RIA Novosti) - A monument to U.S. poet Walt Whitman has been installed in Moscow to coincide with the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama, Russia's Channel One reported on Monday.

No plaque was unveiled, however, as the official inauguration of the monument was postponed until the fall for unknown reasons.

The statue was placed in front of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, Russia's largest and most prestigious institute of higher education. According to the Russia Peace Foundation, the monument was "a reciprocal gift from the mayor of Washington, D.C. for the monument to Aleksandr Pushkin, which was given to the American capital in 2000 by the mayor of Moscow."

Whitman (1819-1892) was a poet, journalist and essayist, and is often referred to as America's first "poet of democracy."