Russian Embassy in the UK depicts Europeans as 'gay pigs' in offensive cartoon

The Russian embassy in London posted a cartoon on social media which appears to depict Europeans as gay pigs.

The bizarre image shows a large, muscular bear in a tight, pink and white Russia t-shirt, hulking over dozens of cowering piggy banks, confined to a concentration camp adorned with a pride flag, a eurozone sign, and stars.

The drawing was posted from the diplomatic mission's official Twitter account on Saturday, with the accompanying message: "If Russia is in decline, why worry? Maybe, real worry is West's decline and that we manage things better?"

Twitter user Gary Spedding, who works in UK parliament, quickly retweeted the post.

“This is a genuine tweet from the Russian Embassy depicting Europeans as pigs flying gay pride flags," he said.

"It's well-known that Russia has gone backwards in terms of LGBTQi rights in recent years and here Russian Embassy confirms that hatred.”

In addition to suggesting the image was homophobic, Mr Speeding and other people on social media said the cartoon had fascist connotations.

"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," Mr Speeding said.

Pink News, who first reported on the post, pointed out the resemblance of the camp depicted to Auschwitz and other Nazi-run concentration camps that operated during the Second World War.

Other people found it difficult to believe that an official diplomatic mission would share an offensive and puerile cartoon. One Twitter user called the picture disgusting, and another suggested the embassy should fire the person responsible for managing their social media account.

A number of people asked if the staff could be drunk, on drugs, or if the account had either been hacked or was parodic.

Russian Twitter users said they were embarrassed by the tweet.

Some people responded by mocking the embassy.

Tensions between Europe and Russia have heightened in recent weeks, with Russia sailing warships down the English Channel on Friday in an apparent show of military power.

Within the country, human rights have been eroded with further repressive measures enacted on the LGBT community.

In early October the Kremlin attempted to force an LGBT support site for gay teens to close, as part of a clampdown.

Yelena Klimova, the founder of the website, had previously been fined under the country’s "gay propaganda" law, which bans the publication of any media content which "promotes" homosexuality.

Authorities forced Russian social network VK to restrict the group's activities and state media watchdog Roskomnadzor was reportedly set to blacklist the Deti-404 site for “spreading banned information”.

The country's stance appears somewhat confused, however.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently attacked laws in the United States which he said were homophobic, and claimed Russia ensures LGBT people have equal rights to heterosexual, cisgender people.

He claimed homophobia in Russia has been “deliberately exaggerated” in the Western media, before referencing US laws that were actually abolished more than a decade ago.

Along with the pig and bear cartoon, the Russian embassy in the UK also tweeted a drawing and message on Saturday claiming Russia faced down terrorists in Syria when other countries were too afraid to intervene.

Russia has been condemned in Europe for airstrikes on civilians in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo, which have killed innocent people including babies and children.

The Russian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.