Russia isn't PC

Moscow (AFP) - An upscale Russian store chain apologised on Thursday for selling chopping boards with an image of US President Barack Obama as a monkey, after the US embassy reacted furiously.

The product features a family of monkeys, with an image of Obama's face superimposed onto that of the smallest primate.

The store chain on Thursday announced it had pulled the item from its shelves, saying it had not been aware of Obama's image.

"Sales of the chopping boards have been stopped," Valentina Moiseyeva, a spokeswoman for the Bakhetle supermarket chain, TASS agency reported.

"We are sorry that such product was on our store shelves. For us it is unacceptable that a store is used as a place for political provocation," Moiseyeva said, adding that the supermarket had lodged a formal complaint against the boards' supplier.

The board is styled as a calendar for 2016, the year of the monkey according to the Chinese zodiac.

The Bakhetle chain is based in Russia's traditionally Muslim region of Tatarstan but has stores throughout the country.
"Disgusting to see that such blatant racism has a place on Russian store shelves," Will Stevens, the spokesman for the US Embassy in Moscow, wrote on Twitter.

Stevens later posted a picture of the chain's apologetic comment, adding in a tweet: "Thank you to colleagues in Bakhetle for issuing an apology... We appreciate this."

The scandal broke out after one customer purchased the chopping board in a store in Tatarstan's main city Kazan and took pictures that went viral.

Racist outbursts against Obama -- who is often demonised and ridiculed by pro-Kremlin figures -- have grown common in Russia in recent years, even from public figures.

In 2013 Irina Rodnina, a former Olympic gold medallist and now a lawmaker with majority party United Russia, posted a collage on Twitter showing Barack and Michelle Obama looking at a banana.

She deleted the image later and claimed her account had been hacked.

 

I respect Putin. When NATO told him to quit killing the terrorists that NATO funds and only kill ISIS terrorists, he said, "I kill all terrorists; there's no good terrorists. Russia doesn't distinguish between terrorists groups; we kill all of them."

 

There's not going to be a war between USA and Russia or with China. When I was younger I could have been convinced a war was inevitable, but now being older and wiser and a military vet, I know it's all just blather. Sneaky way to get smaller countries worried enough to blow billions of dollars on weapons they can't afford.

 

It's sad really; Philippines is all worked up and it's just a big show to wrangle cash out of the American taxpayer. Those 5 ships USA gave to Philippine Navy are a joke. One is an old research ship and the other four are old worn out Coast Guard cutters. All five ships are over 50 years old. The US Coast Guard was going to scrap them because the upkeep is cost prohibitive, so the US Navy slapped some fresh gray paint on them and gave them to the Philippine Navy. Of course now, the USA will have to give them the money to keep the ships running. Philippine politicians will jack up the maintenance costs and pocket millions for themselves. All those Asian countries that are supposed to be USA's friends are buying dozens of brand new submarines from China. I think Vietnam is buying 10 submarines from China, yet they keep yelling that China is out to get them and is their mortal enemy. They don't mention all the new factories, rail lines, highways China is building there and footing the bill for most of it. The factories are China outsourcing their manufacturing to keep labor costs down. All this stuff is public knowledge.

 

I really like the Philippines. There's a few drivers that post on here that own homes there. Philippines and China are both really nice places to live and very cheap cost of living. I don't believe anything a politician says about the Orient, because I know better from personal experience.