Russian Communists Protest Stallone Art Exhibition

A group of Communist Party members have protested the launch of anexhibition for Sylvester Stallone paintings inside the Russian Museumin St. Petersburg.

The party issued a statement about theevent, arguing that Stallone is considered one of Former U.Spresident Ronald Reagan's cold war soldiers, and that Stallone was“an embodiment of Cold War and the Us military machine,someone who kills countless Soviet soldiers and our Vietnamesecomrades, a maniacal fighter against the so-called 'red threat'."

Stallone's famous Rocky films werefamous for spreading hatred to the so called “Russian enemy,”generalizing audience perception of Russians as absolute villains.Communist activists' argument was that not after the thousands ofcasualties resulting from the years long complex wars between the twonations, an exhibition would be held to showcase paintings made byone of the promoters of ideological hostility towards Russia. Museumbosses refused to acknowledge the protests and the exhibition isrunning as scheduled.

The “Rocky” films were extremely successful, where Stalloneplayed the poor boxer incarnating the American dream, and wholescenes metaphorically resembled the threat of the communist block onAmerica's future.