Russia's government has announced it willspend up to 13m roubles ($200,000; ￡140,000) this yearon preserving Vladimir Lenin's embalmed body.

The amount, published in a notice on theState Procurement Agency website, will be used to keep the late leader'sremains in what the RBK news website calls a "lifelike condition".

The notice says the work required is of a"biomedical nature", that the federal budget will foot the bill. Alaboratory currently called the Russian Biomedical Technology Research andTraining Centre has carried out all repairs to Lenin's body since it was firstput on public display in Moscow's Red Square in 1924.

In the post-Soviet years there have beenmany calls for Lenin to be buried rather than kept on public display in hisglass coffin. A recent online poll of more than 8,000 Russians found that 62%were in favour of giving him a proper burial, although the idea has previouslybeen dismissed by the Kremlin.

News of Lenin's maintenance budget hasn'tgone down well among social media users. On the Komsomolskaya Pravda websitesome deplore the cost of keeping a "mummy" on display, while otherscomplain that Lenin himself would have opposed being treated as an "idol".One person sardonically suggests that the Communists hope to clone theBolshevik leader if they ever return to power, and another says that if they'regoing to bury Lenin they should first dig up post-Soviet President BorisYeltsin.