The husband of a Russian ice dancer who is at the centre of an internet storm over her Holocaust-themed performance has refused to comment apart from saying he's proud of his wife.
Dimitry Peskov, who is also a spokesman for president Vladimir Putin, told Russia's Tass news agency he's not able to comment on the incident.
"I do not think this is the issue, which can be somehow associated with the Kremlin, and due to my work responsibilities I am restricted in the possibility of making comments on it," Peskov said.
"I am proud of my wife and this is all I can say."
Tatiana Navka and her dancing partner caused controversy by dressing up in concentration camp uniforms for a routine on a popular television show.
The champion skater and her dancing partner Andrei Burkovsky appeared in Saturday's episode of "Ice Age" dressed in striped uniforms bearing yellow six-pointed stars and heavily made-up to look bruised and frail.
Their routine, which aired on state-owned Channel One, was based on Life is Beautiful, the Academy Award-winning Italian movie about a Jewish father who pretends for the sake of his small son that their internment in a Nazi camp is just a game.
Navka, 41, who won gold in ice dancing for Russia at the 2006 Turin Olympics, and Burkovsky, a 33-year-old theatre actor, told Russian media on Sunday that it was their way of paying homage to Holocaust victims.
Holocaust-themed routines aren't new to sports.
In 1996, France's synchronised swimming team had to scrap its program, which depicted the arrival of Jewish women in death camps and their final march to the gas chambers, following an intervention by the French sports minister. The routine was also based on a movie and set to music from Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List.
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