KUALA LUMPUR – Seasoned Russian rooftopper Angela Nikolau has apologised to Malaysians following her stunt in scaling Merdeka 118, the second tallest building in the world, late last year.
She had earlier posted a thread on Twitter, recalling her experience in ascending the tower, located adjacent to the Stadium Merdeka here.
However, netizens reproached her for breaking the law in trespassing and urged her not to justify her actions in order to achieve her personal goal.
“I appreciate you making a thread about it and I apologise if I offended the feelings of Malaysian people. That was never my intent.
“I wish nothing but (to create a) piece and art, and in no way am I interested in any kind of conflict or hatred.
“Apologies to Malaysia and its people,” she wrote.
I appreciate you making a thread about it and I apologise if I offended the feelings of Malaysian people. That was never my intent.
— Angela Nikolau (@AngelaNikolau_) January 5, 2023
I wish nothing but piece and art, and in no way am I interested in any kind of conflict or hatred.
Apologies to Malaysia and its people.
The extreme climber was reacting to a Twitter thread by @TheFuturizts who listed several reasons why Malaysians are unhappy with her stunt.
Among others, the Twitter user claimed that Nikolau’s use of a hijab as a means of disguise to evade being detected by the security team manning the Merdeka 118 is a form of disrespect to Muslims.
The social media user said that other non-Muslims women had also worn the hijab but it was usually “purely out of respect”.
“As for your case, you treated a religious garment as a mere disguise, and then stripped naked just to ‘cool down a little bit’,” the Twitter user wrote.
I appreciate you making a thread about it and I apologise if I offended the feelings of Malaysian people. That was never my intent.
— Angela Nikolau (@AngelaNikolau_) January 5, 2023
I wish nothing but piece and art, and in no way am I interested in any kind of conflict or hatred.
Apologies to Malaysia and its people.
In her sharing with her followers on the social media site, Nikolau had said that she had laid down naked to cool off during her attempt to scale the peak of Merdeka 118.
She said that she had to strip down as she was overheated following running up 32 floors while wearing a hijab, glasses, and builders’ uniform to blend in with the tower site’s workers.
Earlier, in her own Twitter thread, the 29-year-old Russian daredevil also said that she respects the laws of each country that she visits, but admitted that she sometimes had to break them to perform her stunt.
She stressed that even though she sometimes trespasses, she takes special care not to cause any damage to anything, which other rooftoppers sometimes do.
“My goal is to create memorable art by capturing moments at the world’s tallest buildings,” she said.
Prior to that, she had told The Vibes that scaling the RM5 billion tower was a physically and emotionally draining experience and the hardest thing she has ever done in her life.
Nikolau became the first woman not working in the project to scale Merdeka 118 when she successfully reached the top of the 679m-tall tower last week together with her partner Ivan Beerkus.
A photo of the daredevil couple was uploaded on online forum SkyscraperCity.com on December 27, before the duo confirmed their stunt two days later through Instagram posts featuring footage of them on the peak of the tower’s spire.
Both Nikolau and Beerkus are now under Malaysian police investigation for trespassing on private property.
The Vibes had also reported Nikolau as refuting police’s earlier suspicion that the visuals of her adventure up on the tower could have been fake and graphically manipulated.
She said the multiple clips uploaded by her and Beerkus on should have been sufficient evidence of the authenticity of their climb. – The Vibes, January 5, 2023
