The Russian government has launched an anti-smoking ad campaign that compares the number of people who die from using nicotine products to those killed by President Obama.
“Smoking kills more people than Obama, although Obama kills a lot of people,” the bus stop ad reads. “Don’t smoke. Don’t be like Obama.”
The ad, seen in Moscow’s Red Square, claims Obama has killed anywhere up to 6 million people annually, the number the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports are killed from smoking.
Although the public service health ad is meant to nudge Russians away from smoking, it’s also a not-so-subtle attack on U.S. foreign policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2012, has openly disagreed with how Obama’s strategy in various international issues. The U.S. has criticized Moscow for invading Ukraine and its mingling in Syrian affairs.
It’s not the first time Obama has been attacked on such a public front in Russia. Last month, a Putin-supporting art group hung a banner outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that featured a picture of Obama with the word “killer.”
Russian State Duma opposition deputy Dmitry Gudkov railed against the Russian government on Facebook, saying Russians are allowed to practice free speech only when it is aligned with Putin’s beliefs.
“It’s disgusting and ashamed that such shows up in the streets of the capital of Russia,” Gudkov’s post translates into English.
The Obama and Putin administrations have not issued comments about the ad.
