The Russian woman picked to light the Olympic torch in Sochi was former figure skater (and current MP for Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party) Irina Rodnina, who posted a doctored racist picture of the Obamas last year, and refused to apologize for it.

The passive aggression isn’t exactly hidden there, Vlad.

Over here in the US, meanwhile, Rodnina is the new hero of the right wing blogosphere, as much for the racist tweet as for the implied insult to the Obamas. The commenters at sites like Breitbart.com and GatewayPundit are simultaneously:

• whining about being falsely accused of racism,
• complaining that there's nothing racist about the picture Rodnina tweeted, and
• posting disgusting racist comments and pictures of their own, by the thousands.

Here’s a small sample of the far right hatefest currently going on at the aforementioned highly popular conservative blogs, for posterity’s sake. First, from Breitbart:

I love that she didn’t apologize.

[…]

The obvious comparisons is blatant the Supreme Ruler along with his Queen
Chubacca of the baboons both have strong facial features of primates the
Supreme Ruler when drunk looks even more so.

[…]

“WHAT NO WATERMELLON”

[…]

now the democrats are now reaching for anything that seems racist but they have failed because it is a russian who has done that now.

[…]

Nothing racist about that picture. The banana does not make it racist. Would the critics like it better if they had used a watermelon instead?

[…]

There is nothing that can be said or shown regarding Obama that isn’t called racist. That simply means that he and his followers are racist themselves and has nothing to do with anything or anyone else.

[…]

I am torn of which babe I like the most, this one or the Russian reporter babe that gave Obama the finger while on the air.

[…]

HHAHAHHAHAHAHA that picture is hilarious….

[…]

wash nana down with a forty, bomba

[…]

Now, why would depicting the Obamas as monkeys necessarily have to be racist? It might just mean that they are idiots… Just like Jesse Jackass and Al Sharptongue… everything has to be racism.

[…]

This could be offensive to monkeys.

[…]

I think it looks more like she is indicating he likes sucking on c**k.

[…]

I admit I laughed, I guess that makes me racist. Even if you made them white, with the expressions on their face they do look like monkeys.

[…]

Very funny photo. I see no racism at all, now if it would have been a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, maybe, just maybe.

[…]

I fail to see a problem. He is what he is. But watermellon or fried chicken would have worked too.

And from Jim Hoft’s hate hole, here’s a screenshot of the festivities (click to enlarge):