Organizers of a children's show in the Altai region have come under fire for plans to have children burn an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama, prompting changes to be made to the show's script.
The show, scheduled for Feb. 18 in Barnaul to mark the spring holiday of Maslenitsa, was originally meant to include a scene in which one of the characters beats a doll made in the image of Obama, to be followed by a collective burning of Obama's effigy.
"The main character, Petrushka, beats everyone with a stick. Including the overseas hero — U.S. President Barack Obama. The script calls for him to shout: 'Sanctions! Sanctions against Russia,' for which he gets smacked in the head by Petrushka," Yevgeny Golovin, the organizer of the show, said in comments carried by regional news site Sibinfo.su.
The show was meant to end with all the participants burning an effigy of Obama, he said.
But after local media made a fuss about the planned script, the organizers decided to reconsider, Golovin told Ekho Moskvy radio station on Sunday.
At the same time, however, he defended the script's authors, saying they were simply trying to modernize satire by using figures they knew would be disliked by most members of the audience.
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