A Russian late-night television sketch featuring a racist impersonation of former U.S. President Barack Obama by an actress in blackface has sparked controversy after airing on a Kremlin-funded network over the weekend.
After lampooning Obama’s recently published memoir during his Saturday evening political satire show Mezhdunarodnaya Pilorama (“International Saw-Panorama”), host Tigran Keosayan segues to an interview with the fake former president.
“We now go live to the dark side of America’s history, Barack Obama,” Keosayan jokes as the actress in blackface wearing a red bandana, gold chains and an oversized T-shirt appears on the other side of the split screen.
With the exaggerated gesticulations of a rapper, the fake Obama chants “Black Lives Matter” — a slogan used to protest police brutality against African-Americans — before Keosayan shuts him down with assertions that “there’s no racism in Russia.”
The split-screen interview on the NTV broadcasting network then descends into straw-man insinuations that Obama’s family was illiterate, that the ex-president is driven by greed and that he should pursue a rap career.
“Do you consider this book your achievement?” asks Keosayan, the husband and writing partner of the Kremlin-funded RT broadcaster’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.
The actress wearing blackface agrees enthusiastically, saying “none of my relatives that came before me could write.” Asked to name the most important part of his memoirs, the Obama impersonator shouts “royalties.”
“You should have been a rap musician,” Keosayan tells the fake Obama after the actress performs a Donald Trump-themed rhyme when asked to cite a passage from his memoirs.
Kremlin critic and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny lashed out at the skit, writing on Twitter that the husband-and-wife pair earn an estimated $65,600 per episode and that they sent their daughter to study in New York.
Russian Twitter users have also criticized the clip, calling it “garbage,” criticizing the use of blackface on a state-run channel and pointing to the real-life Obama’s eloquence.
Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin were often at odds during the U.S. president’s eight years in office despite his attempts at a “reset” in relations with Russia. Tensions came to a head in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, as well as in 2016, when the U.S. accused Moscow of interfering in its presidential election.
The Kremlin in recent weeks has pointed to the Obama administration as the “harbinger” of deteriorating U.S.-Russian ties.
Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, has been declared the winner of the 2020 presidential race while the incumbent President Donald Trump has yet to concede. Putin is among the shrinking number of world leaders who have yet to congratulate the president-elect in what the Kremlin has waved off as a diplomatic courtesy ahead of official results.
Are we for some reason supposed to care what Russian TV does?….They are simply making lite of the biggest scam ever pulled on Americans in History. An illegal immigrant who fraudulently took the white house. Who cares?
AMEN
even the Russians know Obama was a fake and a liar with no backbone.
Obama is about to show obiden and Karbala how to run down a country just like he did. Oh and let’s bring in ms Hillary for good measure. Boy oh boy what a fucked up country .
I agree with the Biggest Scam and fraud pulled in US History. Every last one of those taking part belongs in prison .. anyone else would already be there.
OBAMA WAS A JOKE AND NOT AN AMERICAN AND STILL IS NOT. WA S NOT BORN IN AMERICA. SHOULD BE SENT BACK WHERE HE CAME FROM. HE IS PURE EVIL . AND WILL KILL ANYONE THAT GETS IN HIS WAY. HE IS AS BAD AS HILLARY HICKORY DOT. SHE IS A KNOW MURDERER.
Looks to me like it was fitting! Almost as good as the french reporter that that covered their visit and as two french lovlies walked up the stairs with his old lady in the middle compared it to “TWO sleek sports cars and a DUMP TRUCK”
well? what is this!
Why is it ok for Obama and other blackish figures to spurt racism against white people, but they go jump to the race card.
Obama is all about greed and power and hasn’t made one attempt to speak out against the violence and looting by the BLM.
Now who is the racist.
He isnt gonna speak out against them. Him and his buddy Soros are the ones funding and organizing them. They are Obummers army.
Obama is a traitor and spreading his socialism, country dividing and running down the country agenda.
Boo hoo Obama!!!!!!!
I am not pro-Russia, but I applaud Russian comedians who posed fun at the “Annointed one” who nobody was allowed to criticise for fear of being racist. President Trump has been ridiculed and disrespected more than any other US President ever. Nobody is above being parodied in innocent fun. Russia, I give you permission to make fun of Democratic American Presidents without being “controversial.”
Russia is just reminding America and the world about the biggest scam ever perpetrated on Americans.Barack Hussein Obama is a FRAUD
Pretty sure that Putin has some personal racist tendencies. Russian politics certainly not driven by political correctness.