IKEA Rainbow Putin pillow is a fake

The too-good-to-be-true pillow case caught a number of twitter users napping

It has been described as a peace symbol, fantastic marketing and soft diplomacy – but the one incontrovertible fact about IKEA’s rainbow PUTIN pillow case is that it is (unfortunately) a fake.

This morning, a photo was widely shared on social media of a number of rainbow-coloured pillow cases purportedly in a Stockholm branch of the Scandinavian furniture chain that seemed to indicate the company was making a thinly veiled poke at Russian laws against homosexuality.

However an IKEA spokesman confirmed that the pillowcase was no longer sold in stores and never had the name PUTIN: “The cushion in the photo is called SKARUM and is no longer for sale in IKEA stores.

“We stopped selling the product in October 2014 to make way for new designs in our range. We can’t comment on the origin of the photo as the name of the cushion was SKARUM the entire time it was on sale.”

“However, we would never make political statements with the naming of our products.”

IKEA recently announced that it would be closing down its online lifestyle magazine in Russia over fears that it will fall foul of a law that forbid the promotion of gay values to minors.

In 2013, the company was widely criticised for withdrawing an article that focussed on a lesbian couple from the Russian edition of the magazine.