Lenin out at soccer club 

MARIUPOL, Ukraine – Ukraine’s ban on Soviet symbols has a soccer club in the city of Mariupol looking for a new name. Illichivets Mariupol got its name from Illich, the sprawling steelworks that was its initial sponsor, which in turn is named after Bolshevik Revolution leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Under decommunization laws adopted in May amid severe tension with Moscow and a war with Russian-backed rebels who are at Mariupol’s doorstep, that’s no good. The legislation bans Soviet symbols, so Illichivets is seeking a new name – and asking fans to help choose one. The Ukrainian Premier League club is offering a list of possible names in a survey posted on its website.  More than 8,100 people had voted by July 15, with just over 50 percent favoring Metallurg. Along with Metallurg, which means “steelworker” in Russian, the simpler name FC Mariupol has also proved popular with the respondents. The list of seven possible names also includes Lokomotiv and Novator. Both names along with Metallurg and Metallurh (the same word in Ukrainian) are among the club’s former names. It is not clear when Illichivets will conclude the survey and announce its new name. The club has already missed the June 21 deadline Ukrainian authorities had set to get rid of Soviet symbols. (RFE/RL, written by Farangis Najibullah based on a report by RFE/RL’s Ukraine Service correspondent Yana Polyanska)