The Russian performed on the celebrity skating show Ice Age alongside actor Andrei Burkovsky, wearing striped uniforms featuring the yellow Star of David badges Jewish people were ordered to wear in Nazi Germany.

Navka, who won Olympic ice dancing gold at Turin 2006 with Roman Kostomarov, said that the routine was supposed to be based on the 1997 film Life Is Beautiful.

This tells the story of a father trying to protect his son from the horrors of a concentration camp by pretending that it is all part of a game.

However, the dance has been widely criticised as being insensitive after millions of people were killed in German concentration camps during The Holocaust.

The performance has been dubbed as "The Holocaust on Ice".

It has also led to criticism of Vladimir Putin, as Navka is married to Dmitry Peskov, the Russian President's spokesman.

"Do they think holocaust is cute and funny," one user asked on Twitter.

Another added: "The performance by Tatyana Navka and her partner is the most vulgar, vile and repulsive garbage I've seen in a while."

The routine included Burkovsky exiting to machine gun fire with the judges giving the pair perfect scores for technique and artistry.

Navka defended the dance, telling Komsomolskaya Pravda: "This isn’t just a TV show.

"This is theatre.

"And such issues must be raised.

"People must remember about it.

"And if the youths will now show interest and try to learn about the Holocaust, concentration camps and the Life is Beautiful movie, it would mean that we’ve hit the mark.

"This is our performance - it hasn’t caused any reactions in the world before. 

"I hope that many people simply have not watched the movie, and when they do it, they will look at our lovely performance with a fresh look."

According to RT, the performance was welcomed by many members of the Russian Jewish community.