The Olympic opening ceremony just wrapped up, and former Russian figure skater Irina Rodnina was the given the honor of lighting the Olympic flame. Rodnina is one of Russia's most successful figure skaters, and is currently a member of Russia's public chamber. She is also, it seems, pretty racist!


In September 2013, she tweeted out the picture you see above, just one of the many anti-Obama pictures floating around the internet that your racist uncle is so fond of emailing you all the time.

The tweet was quickly deleted, but Rodnina has remained defiant and has yet to apologize for posting the image. From The Guardian:

Rodnina insisted that there was nothing wrong with the photograph, and said she had been sent it by friends in America. "Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, and you should answer for your own hang-ups," she wrote. [...] Rodnina, who lived in the US for many years, deleted the photograph but has not apologised and remains unfazed by accusations of racism. Instead, she suggested that the wave of criticism she prompted from liberal journalists and other Russians was a conspiracy.


What a neat lady!

h/t Julia Ioffe