The U.S. embassy in Kyiv has described as brazen and insulting the Bloodhound Gang's onstage desecration of the Russian national flag.
Intentional desecration of national symbols is a brazen and insulting act, Luke Schtele, the U.S embassy’s press attache, told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday. But freedom of speech is a universal right sealed in the U.S. Constitution and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he said. The Bloodhound Gang rock group made use of their rights in a disgusting manner, insulting the United States and the Ukrainian and Russian peoples during their concerts in Kyiv and Odesa, Schtele said.
Since the U.S. embassy has nothing to do with this, we re-address all inquiries to the organizers of the concerts and to the Bloodhound Gang musicians, he said.
Bloodhound Gang started its CIS tour in Ukraine. “A rock musician urinated on stage, targeting the blue and white Ukrainian flag” during a concert in Kyiv on July 30, but the audience was very much amused, media reports said.
The next day, bassist Jared ‘Evil’ Hasselhoff, 41, used the Russian flag as toilet paper at the Ibiza club in Odessa. He threw the desecrated flag into the crowd, where it was caught by a fan.
The incidents were video-taped and posted on the Internet, after which the rock group’s concert in southern Russia was cancelled, even though the rock musicians had been paid for it. They were pelted by tomatoes and eggs prior to the departure from the Anapa airport, and they were also attacked by Cossacks, one of whom wanted to strangle the bassist with an American flag. The flag was torn into pieces in front of the musicians after police intervened.
Although the rock group apologized, it was forced to leave Russia.
