Putin ally's wife performs Holocaust-themed ice skating routine on Russian TV reality show

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The wife of Vladimir Putin’s powerful spokesman has provoked outrage by performing a Holocaust-themed ice skating routine on Russian TV reality show.

Tatiana Navka, the wife of Dmitry Peskov, appeared on Russian reality show Ice Age and performed in the striped uniform of concentration camp victims complete with the yellow Star of David which Jewish people were forced to wear by the Nazis.

She and her ice skating partner, actor Andrei Burkovsky, smiled at the audience during the performance and appeared to mime shooting each other in one sequence.

Writing on her Instagram page, the professional ice skater said the performance was designed to pay tribute to her favourite film, Life is Beautiful – an Italian film about a bookshop owner who uses his imagination to distract his young son from the horrors of the concentration camp they are imprisoned in.

She wrote: “Show this movie to your children. Our children need to know and remember that terrible time, which I hope, God willing, they will never know (again)”.

But the performance has attracted criticism from many for its perceived insensitivity, with many calling for those involved to make a public apology.

It is not the first time the Holocaust has been used as inspiration for a Russian TV show, according to the Jerusalem Post.

In April, Russia’s version of “Dancing with the Stars” featured a dance in which a Nazi officer searched for a Jewish girl behind a piano.