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Russians blast Robbie Williams for crude stereotyping

Just when you thought the relationship between the UK and Russia couldn’t get any worse, along comes an ageing boyband star to well and truly throw a sickle in the works.

Robbie Williams has been condemned all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok over his latest promo video for new single Party Like A Russian, with the Great Russian Public giving the Robster a huge, resounding ‘Nyet’ on account of some rather hamfisted racist stereotyping.

Robbie WIlliams
Columbia Music

In case you’ve missed it, the video features Robbie and accompanying ballerinas belting out lines about how he “alleviates the cash from a whole entire nation, takes loose change and builds his own space station.”

In the song, which is definitely not about Vladimir Putin, OK?, Robbie also sings: “Ain’t no refutin’ or disputin’ – I’m a modern Rasputin” to the tune of Dance of the Knights from Romeo and Juliet.

Robbie Williams
Columbia

All just harmless fun? Not according to Russian newspaper Life, which says the Take That man will never be able to perform in Russian again.

State-run TV channel Vesti also reckons that the Russian theme has been shoehorned into the singer’s act because to rescue a career which “in recent years was becoming a memory rather than a reality”. Ooooooh!

Still, if the midweek charts are anything to go by, it’s not just Russia that’s less than keen on Robbie’s latest single. Party Like a Russian has limped in at number 53 in the UK charts – not exactly brilliant for a singer used to scoring number 1 hits by the shedload.

Robbie Williams – Party Like A Russian from Sergey Vorobioff on Vimeo.