Russia is to get its own Dear Green Place - a park called Glasgow.

Authorities in the southern port of Rostov have unveiled plans for what they are calling their first "Scottish-style" gardens

The city - which has been twinned with Glasgow since the dying days of the Cold War - is looking to transform a riverbank plagued by fly-tipping into a major attraction.

But Deputy Mayor Sergei Kuznetsov, announcing the scheme, didn't quite explain what a Scottish-style park would be like, prompting local social media wags to ask for a Korean garden instead.

The announcement in Russia took Glasgow by surprise - they hadn't been informed of the honour.

Lord Provost Sadie Docherty said: "I’m delighted our Russian twin town is creating a park and naming it after Glasgow.

"It’s a real honour and very special because this year marks our 30th twinning anniversary. It’s lovely to think that a little bit of Glasgow, including indigenous flowers, will belong to Rostov-on-Don."

Rostov is a major industrial city with a population twice the size of Glasgow's. Built on the banks of the huge River Don, it is formally called Rostov-na-Donu or Rostov-on-Don. But the new Glasgow Park will be on the banks of a smaller tributary of the great river, the Termernik, in a peripheral housing scheme of the same name.

Mr Kuznetsov said the park would be the size of nine football pitches, would have Scottish flowers and gateways emblazoned with Glasgow symbols.

It will also have little garden houses of pavilions where park-goers to can chat while sheltering from the blazing southern Russian sun. There are also plans for a 300-seat open-air amphitheatre for concerts and plays.

Mr Kuznetsov aims to fund the park by offering businesses the chance to bid for spaces on the land, which is currently scrub next to Soviet-era apartment blocks.

Comments on the news of Glasgow Park in the Russian mass-market tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda suggest far from all residents are impressed by the project.

One said: "A park would be good but why a Scottish one and not a Korean one?"

Another sceptic added: "Nothing will grow there. For years they have been dumping construction rubbish and all kinds of other rubbish. And it will have to be watered, even if from the stinking Temernik."

The new park, however, does aim to be disabled-friendly, with pathways for wheelchairs planned and other facilities. It will also have an outdoor gym.

Glasgow City Council has been criticised for its numerous twinning arrangements. But the Rostov link has been used by both the administration and opposition to grandstand on Russian issues well beyond the scope of local government.

Ms Docherty has raised gay rights with her counterparts in Rostov and the SNP this time last year called for the twinning to be axed altogether because of widely suspected Russian involvement supporting separatists in nearby eastern Ukraine.