The Statue of Peter the Great...Eyesore or Embellishment?

After passing Red Square we follow the river... En route to the office, we pass this huge sculpture sitting on the south bank, looming over buildings and beholding the city with a regal, imperial air. The 94 meter high statue was built to honor of Peter the Great and the Russian Navy, and was first unveiled in 1997 by Georgian designer Zurab Tsereteli. Online it's been listed as one of the ugliest statues in the world, as noted below by Joshua Keating of Foreign Policy:
"Just because communism ended doesn’t mean that Russia has stopped building grotesque, propagandistic statues. The master of the form is Georgian-born artist Zurab Tsereteli, best known for the garish 315-foot maritime statue of Peter the Great looming over the Moskva River. The statue was commissioned by Tsereteli’s frequent booster, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and has fast become a popular tourist attraction, if not exactly for the reasons its planners hoped."
Apparently Russian authorities are considering moving this to St.Petersburg, for reasons I can't quite wrap my head around. Art this big isn't meant to be deconstructed and transported anywhere...