Censored by IKEA: Pussy Riot-style customer photo deleted from Russian website

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Published time: September 23, 2012 15:02
Edited time: September 23, 2012 19:02

Furniture giant IKEA has taken off its Russian website a picture featuring a group of masked youngsters wearing Pussy Riot-style balaclavas. The photo became the most popular in the customer competition to select the cover for its next catalog.

­The challenge for IKEA fans in Russia was to photograph themselves in the world's largest furniture retailer and post the picture on the company's website.

The image made by a user from the Urals city of Yekaterinburg featured several youngsters sitting on IKEA furnishings in brightly colored masks.  Garnering some 1,431 "likes", it took the lead in the IKEA photo gallery before it was deleted.

The picture was replaced with a statement informing users that "IKEA is a commercial organization that operates beyond politics and religion. We cannot allow our advertising project to be used as a means of propaganda of any kind."

Three members of Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in a medium-security prison for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and enmity” in August. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich were taken into custody for their performance of the profanity-laden so-called prayer “Mother of God, drive Putin away” in Moscow’s main Orthodox church. The three women have maintained their innocence saying they never intended to offend people's religious sensibilities whatsoever.