The Russian embassy has tweeted a mocking cartoon that illustrates Europeans as ‘gay pigs’.

As reported by Pink News, the image includes a giant bear, which represents Russia, standing in front of a camp populated by piggy banks, with European stars and an LGBT rainbow flag. The sign above the pigs looks similar to that above concentration camp Auschwitz. The image is tagged with “Image used for illustration purposes”.

In the tweet’s caption, it says: “If Russia is in decline, why worry? Maybe, real worry is West’s decline and that we manage things better?”

LGBT activist Gary Spedding spoke out on the social media platform: “This is a genuine tweet from the Russian Embassy depicting Europeans as pigs flying gay pride flags,” he wrote. “It’s well-known that Russia has gone backwards in terms of LGBTQi rights in recent years and here Russian Embassy confirms that hatred.”

“Not sure if the stars in the image are meant to mean something either but this tweet from Russian Embassy is full of all kinds of facism,” he added.

The tweet has been met with widespread backlash, many Russian Twitter users. One user called it “disgusting”, while others asked if the social media team were drunk or had been hacked. Others mocked the connotations that the bear has within the gay community (bear in male gay culture means a physically rugged, traditionally ‘masculine’ man).

The embassy's Twitter account has used several cartoons and badly edited images to illustrate their recent tweets that criticise the western governments and media. 

Tensions between Russia and Europe have been escalating recently: in a move to show military force, Russia sailed warships down the English Channel last week.

And though the country’s treatment of LGBT people has been widely criticised, president Vladimir Putin spoke out about the supposed equal rights the community had compared to the U.S. He said Russia’s homophobia was “deliberately exaggerated” in the press.

Russia also recently attempted to shut down Deti-404, an online support site for gay teens, which officials said violated their ‘gay propaganda’ law.