Supermarket in Tatarstan apologized for the image of Obama among monkeys

The Bahetle chain of homemade food supermarkets apologized for the fact that the assortment of its store in Kazan included a souvenir cutting board with a calendar for 2016, on which there is an image of US President Barack Obama in a collage of a family of primates.

“We apologize for what happened. This is the first time we have encountered such a situation, so the staff was not prepared for it. In order to prevent its recurrence in any form, appropriate training is now being carried out in all stores of the chain,” the press service of the retail chain reported on Thursday.

According to the report, employees who did not pay attention to the image by laying the boards on the shelf will be punished.

“We regret that such products ended up on the shelves of our store. This is an extremely unpleasant situation for us, since it is unacceptable for someone to try to use the trading platform as a place for political provocations,” the press service said.

The company is conducting an internal investigation in connection with the incident and has already sent a claim to the Moscow supplier Classic Posuda LLC (manufacturer Eurostil LLC, St. Petersburg).

“In the batch of cutting boards he supplied, there were three copies with such a provocative image, which, of course, no one agreed with us,” the message says.

The day before, Will Stevens, a spokesman for the US Embassy in Russia, expressed outrage at the sale of these boards. “It’s disgusting that local governments are allowing such racist products to be sold in stores,” he tweeted.

And in an interview with reporters, Stevens said that his “Russian acquaintances not only feel awkward and ashamed of such things, but also find them offensive to themselves.” He recalled that under Russian law such a calendar could be considered extremist due to the possible incitement of racial and national hatred.

Offensive advertising with Barack Obama has already appeared on the streets of Russian cities.

For example, in September 2014, it became known that the Federal Antimonopoly Service for the Samara Region fined a company advertising water heaters using an image of the President of the United States with the caption: “Shame on unwashed chimney sweeps!”