<p>An upscale Russian store chain apologised today for selling chopping boards with an image of US President Barack Obama as a monkey, after the US embassy reacted furiously.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The product features a family of monkeys, with an image of Obama's face superimposed onto that of the smallest primate.<br /><br />The store chain today announced it had pulled the item from its shelves, saying it had not been aware of Obama's image.<br /><br />"Sales of the chopping boards have been stopped," Valentina Moiseyeva, a spokeswoman for the Bakhetle supermarket chain, TASS agency reported.<br /><br />"We are sorry that such product was on our store shelves. For us it is unacceptable that a store is used as a place for political provocation," Moiseyeva said, adding that the supermarket had lodged a formal complaint against the boards' supplier.<br /><br />The board is styled as a calendar for 2016, the year of the monkey according to the Chinese zodiac.<br /><br />The Bakhetle chain is based in Russia's traditionally Muslim region of Tatarstan but has stores throughout the country.<br /><br />"Disgusting to see that such blatant racism has a place on Russian store shelves," Will Stevens, the spokesman for the US Embassy in Moscow, wrote on Twitter.<br /><br />Stevens later posted a picture of the chain's apologetic comment, adding in a tweet: "Thank you to colleagues in Bakhetle for issuing an apology... We appreciate this."<br /><br />The scandal broke out after one customer purchased the chopping board in a store in Tatarstan's main city Kazan and took pictures that went viral.<br /><br />Racist outbursts against Obama - who is often demonised and ridiculed by pro-Kremlin figures - have grown common in Russia in recent years, even from public figures.<br /><br />In 2013 Irina Rodnina, a former Olympic gold medallist and now a lawmaker with majority party United Russia, posted a collage on Twitter showing Barack and Michelle Obama looking at a banana. She deleted the image later and claimed her account had been hacked.</p>
<p>An upscale Russian store chain apologised today for selling chopping boards with an image of US President Barack Obama as a monkey, after the US embassy reacted furiously.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The product features a family of monkeys, with an image of Obama's face superimposed onto that of the smallest primate.<br /><br />The store chain today announced it had pulled the item from its shelves, saying it had not been aware of Obama's image.<br /><br />"Sales of the chopping boards have been stopped," Valentina Moiseyeva, a spokeswoman for the Bakhetle supermarket chain, TASS agency reported.<br /><br />"We are sorry that such product was on our store shelves. For us it is unacceptable that a store is used as a place for political provocation," Moiseyeva said, adding that the supermarket had lodged a formal complaint against the boards' supplier.<br /><br />The board is styled as a calendar for 2016, the year of the monkey according to the Chinese zodiac.<br /><br />The Bakhetle chain is based in Russia's traditionally Muslim region of Tatarstan but has stores throughout the country.<br /><br />"Disgusting to see that such blatant racism has a place on Russian store shelves," Will Stevens, the spokesman for the US Embassy in Moscow, wrote on Twitter.<br /><br />Stevens later posted a picture of the chain's apologetic comment, adding in a tweet: "Thank you to colleagues in Bakhetle for issuing an apology... We appreciate this."<br /><br />The scandal broke out after one customer purchased the chopping board in a store in Tatarstan's main city Kazan and took pictures that went viral.<br /><br />Racist outbursts against Obama - who is often demonised and ridiculed by pro-Kremlin figures - have grown common in Russia in recent years, even from public figures.<br /><br />In 2013 Irina Rodnina, a former Olympic gold medallist and now a lawmaker with majority party United Russia, posted a collage on Twitter showing Barack and Michelle Obama looking at a banana. She deleted the image later and claimed her account had been hacked.</p>