By Quynh Le - BBC Vietnamese
As Lenin's statue was toppled in Kiev, the authorities in Vietnam developed cold feet
As protesters gathered in the Ukrainian capital Kiev in late November, the authorities in Vietnam probably gave little thought to a story unfolding thousands of miles away.
The blockade by protesters angry at a government U-turn on a free trade deal with the EU was widely covered in the Vietnamese press and proved a popular subject on social media.
But everything changed in Vietnam when the statue of Vladimir Lenin came crashing down in Kiev.
On Sunday a group of protesters smashed and dismembered the city's statue of the Russian revolutionary leader.
