Tourists in Crimea deface a 100-year-old cactus with a love note to Barack Obama

Unknown visitors at Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Yalta, Crimea, have vandalized a 100-year-old cactus, scratching into the greenhouse plant’s side the words, “Obama is a dickhead” and “Moscow.”

A photograph of the defaced cactus appeared in a pro-Ukrainian Facebook community called “Objective Crimea.”

Andrei Pashtetsky, the garden’s deputy general director, told Meduza that the photos of the disfigured cactus are real. Pashtetsky says the incident took place about a week ago. The individual (s) responsible for the act escaped undiscovered, he says. There is no video surveillance in the garden, and the facility’s security guards did not notice the vandalism when it occurred. 

Staff at the garden are doing their best to mend the cactus and cover up the inscriptions, though the markings are unlikely to disappear entirely.