The Soviet Army Monument in second-largest Bulgarian city Plovdiv has been draped with a red cloak overnight.

The main figure of the monument is a 10.5-m tall Soviet soldier, affectionately known as Alyosha, which also gives the informal name of the site.

Unknown perpetrators have put an enormous red cloak over the soldier's shoulders.

They have also put a black scarf over Alyosha's mouth.

The reasons for the action are not clear and no one has assumed responsibility.

Organizers of the so-called Night of the Museums, currently going on in Plovdiv, have stated that the occurence has nothing to do with the cultural festival.

A string of half-joking, half-serious decorations of the Soviet Army Monument in Bulgarian capital Sofia have provoked both approval and sharp criticism.

In the latest such occasion, in August, a group of bronze figures in the Sofia monument was sprayed pink as a self-styled "excuse" for the brutal crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring.

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