A Russian News Anchor flipped the bird at United States President Barack Obama during a newscast earlier this month.

The Telegraph reports that the online footage is "being avidly viewed both in Russia and the United States."

In the footage, Tatyana Limanova, an award-winning senior newsreader at the channel, can be seen briskly reading out an item about how Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has just assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Asia Pacific Cooperation organisation.

She is then heard to say that the post "has (previously) been held by Barack Obama" before mechanically and unambiguously raising her left arm and showing the camera her raised middle finger in an offensive gesture that is sometimes known as "flipping the bird."

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