A store robot in Saratov kicked back after a customer shoved it

A humanoid store greeter in Saratov got shoved by a customer, and the security camera caught what happened next: it kicked back.

What the video shows

In the CCTV clip from an electronics store in Saratov, Russia, a man pushes the humanoid greeter. The robot responds by swinging a leg at him and keeps moving until store staff wrestle it into position and power it down manually. The video has passed 9 million views. No one was seriously injured.

Glitch or stunt

The honest answer is that nobody outside the store knows. One reading is a balance-algorithm glitch: when external force hits a walking machine, its controllers prioritize regaining stability, and flailing limbs can read as aggression. The other reading is a staged marketing stunt, a theory tech commentators raised almost immediately. Either way, the clip lands on a real nerve: humanoid robots are moving into retail spaces faster than norms for how they should behave around shoppers, and a machine that reacts physically to being pushed is exactly the scenario those norms will have to cover.