Russian restaurant pulls ad, apologizes for "offending the public" with photos of Black man enjoying sushi

Moscow — A Russian sushi delivery chain issued an apology on its social media accounts after posting an ad featuring a black man. The restaurant's owner said he was bombarded by death threats from a nationalist hate group and forced to take down the advertisement. 

Yobidoyobi, which has stores in 65 Russian cities, posted its first ad featuring a black model — a man surrounded by three women with Slavic features — on August 14. It followed up on the campaign two weeks later posting another picture of the same man easting sushi, and the chain's social media accounts were quickly flooded with hateful comments. Yobidoyobi founder, Konstantin Zimen, attributed the attacks to a hate group called "Male State," and said the barrage of threats came after the movement's leader, Vladislav Pozdnyakov, shared the chain's ad on his accounts.