In further evidence of the faltering of Russian-American relations, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was lit up for a brief period with birthday wishes for President Obama — that came with racist slants.
The first message — a projection of an image of the president with a birthday party hat atop his head and eating a banana — was blared across the front of the U.S. Embassy with the words “happy birthday,” The Huffington Post reported. That message was claimed by the Moscow Student Initiative, which sent out an alert about the deed on social media, then picked up by YouTube.
The same day, a banner that showed Mr. Obama in the various poses of the “Three Wise Monkeys” was unfurled and displayed from a building located right across the street from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, The Huffington Post said.
A social media user tweeted this message about the banner, along with a photo of the offending flag: “Across from the US embassy in Moscow today, Russians hung this racist banner addressing Obama on his 53rd birthday.”
Relations between Mr. Obama and President Vladimir Putin have cooled in recent months, especially since the Russian aggression into Ukraine, and some have suggested that the two countries’ leaders are bringing their nations toward another Cold War.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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