(Getty)

The Russian embassy in the UK has mocked Europeans as “gay pigs”.

Tensions between Europe and Russia have been escalated in recent weeks, with Russia even sailing warships down the English Channel in an apparent show of force.

Russia this week attempted to provoke the West on LGBT rights – a tactic repeatedly employed by President Vladimir Putin in the past.

The Russian Embassy in London tweeted a picture of a giant Russian bear posing over the top of a concentration camp full of piggy banks, adorned with a Pride flag, stars, and a Eurozone sign.

It bears a resemblance to the ‘Arbeit macht frei’ sign that hung above Auschwitz and other concentration camps.



The tweet reads: “If Russia is in decline, why worry? Maybe, real worry is West’s decline and that we manage things better?”

It also claims: “Image used for illustration purposes.”

However, it has been met with a frosty reception.

One LGBT activist wrote: “This is a genuine tweet from the Russian Embassy depicting Europeans as pigs flying gay pride flags.

“Not sure if the stars in the image are meant to mean something either but this tweet from Russian Embassy is full of all kinds of fascism.”

Another Twitter user added: “This cartoon is disgusting.”

Russia recently attempted to force an LGBT support site for gay teens to close, as part of an anti-LGBT clampdown.

Yelena Klimova, the founder of the website, has previously been fined under the country’s ‘gay propaganda’ law, while authorities forced Russian social network VK to clamp down on the group.

Authorities have now gone even further, with state media watchdog Roskomnadzor set to blacklist the Deti-404 site for “spreading banned information.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently has attacked homophobic US laws, claiming Russia ensures equal rights to all LGBT people.

He claimed that homophobia in Russia has been “deliberately exaggerated”, before attacking the United States and the anti-gay laws that he says still exist there.