A mural of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has appeared along the side walks of Lithuania’s capital depicting the two men lip-locked in a friendly embrace.
The mural, painted next to a barbecue restaurant in Vilnius, suggests that future relations between Russia and the U.S. would be cosy if Trump was to become president.
Stars and Stripes reports:
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
The mural, painted by local artist Mindaugas Bonanu, was unveiled by the co-owner of the Keule Ruke, Dominykas Ceckauskas, on Thursday. It has swiftly gained attention in both Lithuanian and international media.
The image is a riff on the famous 1979 photograph that showed Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German President Erich Honecker locked in an embrace.
That image showed the two men kissing on the lips, once a form of fraternal greeting between socialist leaders.
Speaking to the the Baltic News Service, Ceckauskas suggested the new painting was inspired by the Soviet-era image. “We saw similarities between the two heroes (Trump and Putin). . . . They both have an ego that is too big, and it is funny that they get along well,” Ceckauskas said. “We are in a sort of a Cold War again, and America may get a president who will want to be friends with Russia.”
Putin and Trump are known for exchanging mutual admiration statements, with the Russian leader calling Trump “a very colorful person, tatented without any doubt” and Trump saying it was “a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.” Their relationship may have cooled, however, after Trump’s campaign released a video that appeared to portray Russia as a geopolitical rival.
Lithuania and other Baltic states once dominated by Moscow during the Soviet-ere have repeatedly expressed concern about Russian foreign policy under Putin. In a statement sent to us, Keule Ruke said that the artists behind the mural were “predicting that if Russia and the USA would ever make out, it would happen in the Baltic states . . . with tongues or with tanks.”
Edmondo Burr
CEO
Assistant Editor
Latest posts by Edmondo Burr (see all)
- Police Arrest Suspect In Supermarket Baby Food Poisoning - October 1, 2017
- Seoul Secures Data From Electromagnetic Interference By N Korea - September 30, 2017
- The ‘World’s First Internet War’ Has Begun: Julian Assange - September 30, 2017
There is absolutely no reason why we can’t be friendly. This picture though is disrespect and unecessary.
There is absolutely no reason why we can’t be friendly. This picture though is disrespect and unecessary.
A kiss is just a kiss