When Bristol university student Paddy Shuttleworth spotted an unassuming grey cotton T-shirt in his local Burton menswear shop, he was, to say the least, surprised; not by the price (a modest £12) but by the Cyrillic writing surrounding the doubleheaded eagle motif which, as a Russian language student, he was able to translate. Rather unfortunately, it read: "We will cleanse Russia of non-Russians!"

"I did mention to the girl as I bought one of the shirts, that it was politically probably quite dangerous," says Mr Shuttleworth. The shirt's overall design is an odd jumble of ersatz French logo and Russian iconography, but there is no mistaking the nature of the sentiment, which uses the old word for Russia, "Rus" as a way of distinguishing between ethnic Russians and those with Russian citizenship. "I've spoken to a Russian friend," says Mr Shuttleworth, "and she said you would be arrested if you wore it in Russia."

The phrase is typical of those painted on foreigners' homes by Russian neo-nazis. It also has echoes of the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) party's notorious 2005 political broadcast, which depicted dark-skinned immigrants throwing watermelon rinds on the ground along with the incendiary slogan "Let's Clean Moscow of the Rubbish". As a result of the advert Rodina was banned from participating.

Initially Burton seemed surprised by the unsavoury sentiment lurking on its so-called Girlaun Print Crew shirt.

But yesterday it emerged that the high street chain, part of Sir Philip Green's Arcadia group, had been alerted to the gaffe by a member of staff this week. A spokeswoman told the Guardian the company had bought 6,000 of the T-shirts from one of their regular suppliers last week. At the time Burton was told the slogan translated loosely as "Be proud of Russia."

Believing it was no more than harmless patriotism, bosses decided to distribute the T-shirts to stores across the UK.

However, when they went on display in one of Burton's London shops a female member of staff spotted the T-shirt and alerted company bosses.

"She is a Russian speaker and she called the brand director saying the Tshirt was inappropriate," said Burton.

The staff member said the symbol on the T-shirt was used by right-wing groups in Russia and that the slogan meant "Keep Russia for Russian Speakers."

"As soon as we realised its significance and that it was not something we would want on our T-shirts it was withdrawn from stores - that was Tuesday. On Friday we realised it was still on sale online and it was withdrawn completely," said the spokeswoman.

However, the Guardian, attempting to buy one of the T-shirts yesterday, received the following email: "Thanks for your order placed with Burton.co.uk. We are pleased to let you know that the following item(s) are now on their way to you: Quantity: 1; Item number: 45P20QGRY; Description: Girlaun Print Crew, size LGE, Dark Grey."

Last night Jon Benjamin, chief executive at the Board of Deputies of British Jews said Burton had done the right thing. "It is a clear reference to ethnic cleansing and it is not the sort of thing that any of us want to see people wearing," he said.

Lost in translation:

Coors

Beer maker Coors discovered that its slogan "Turn it Loose" translated into Spanish as "Suffer from Diarrhoea". The company immediately pulled the advertisements and changed the campaign's slogan to "Won't Slow You Down" which it said "better resonated with Spanish-speaking audiences".

Reebok

In 1996, Reebok named a new women's tennis shoe Incubus. Unfortunately, Incubus, according to medieval mythology, was a demon who ravished women in their sleep.

Coca-Cola

The corporation's slogan "Coke Adds Life" was reportedly translated into Thai as "Coke Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Dead".

David Beckham

The footballer thought he had made a public statement of love and affection for his wife until it emerged that a tattoo on his arm bearing Victoria's name in Hindi had been misspelt. "Whoever wrote this tattoo is clearly not a Hindi expert," said Padmesh Gupta, president of the United Kingdom Hindi Committee.

Ford Pinto

When Ford launched its Pinto car in Brazil, it was forced to rebrand the range after someone pointed out that "pinto" was slang for "tiny male genitals".