Yep. The FIFA World Cup is definitely being held in Russia alright.
The Cup kicked off last night with the host nation levelling a 5-0 drubbing on Saudi Arabia, and fair to say folks in the homeland are pumped about it.
Celebrations for Russia’s kickoff win cannoned around Moscow, culminating in shocking scenes, captured on film, which appeared to show several men in a jeep with an enormous bear, feeding it a vuvuzela and encouraging it to perform some sort of quenelle salute.
Be warned, this footage isn’t exactly the most pleasant.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkBl1B2nNv4/?taken-by=barstoolsports
Dancing or performing bears is a practice that, while largely condemned, still persists in areas of Russia and Siberia. In April, third-division Russian league club Mashuk-KMV courted controversy after displaying a muzzled performing bear as pre-game entertainment, forcing it to perform for punters in a display that was widely panned by international animal rights groups.
Another angle of the incident captures the bear in the open air jeep in what appears to be near-peak hour Russian traffic.
My mom and her colleagues: LOOK! LOOK IT’S A BEAR! IN A CENTER OF MOSCOW!
I guess all foreign tourists who went to fifa thought: TYPICAL DAY IN RUSSIA pic.twitter.com/F0WluPngON
— GeiYin (@s_l_geiyin) June 14, 2018
How the hell they managed to get this very large animal to perform an antisemitic salute is another thing entirely.
Gotta hand it to them, “overt animal cruelty” is certainly a unique way to celebrate a World Cup win.
Russia. It’s a hell of a country.
