“Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, and you should answer for your own hang-ups…”
It’s appearing that Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t the only Russian official who’s enjoying figuratively poking Barack Obama in the eye. Only this time it’s with a banana and more than slightly on the racist side, as reported by The Guardian (of London, England) on Sept. 16, 2013.
From Russia With Not So Much Love…
Obviously meant as an insult, former triple Olympic champion figure-skater and current Member of Parliament Irina Rodnina has posted on her personal Twitter account a photoshopped picture of The First Couple hungrily eyeing a banana waved in their direction.
The American ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, fired back at Rodnina on Twitter with his own less-than-140-character salvo:
Outrageous behavior, which only brings shame to her parliament and country
According to The Guardian, an unidentified spokesman for the U.S. embassy quoted Thomas Jefferson in response to Rodnina’s offending tweet:
Bigotry is the disease of ignorance.
Diplomatic Cyber-Warfare Goes Bananas…
A member in good standing with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party, an angry Rodnina keystroked a second assault at the Land of the Free, insisting she had done nothing wrong with her banana slap:
Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, and you should answer for your own hang-ups.
Referred to as a one-man Russian version of MSNBC for his often over-the-top defense of both Putin and the Kremlin, television personality Vladimir Soloviev penned a simultaneous championing of Rodnina while he hammered the American penchant for political correctness.
What Irina Konstantinovna put on Twitter is her business; it is her own personal space.
This is not a big scandal.
Soloviev also stated the Amerikanski reaction was a case of oversensitivity and that the photograph was not racist by any means:
I advise everyone who attacked her that the next time they go out for a coffee, they should not call it a black coffee but an African-American coffee.
