diff --git a/python-paramiko.changes b/python-paramiko.changes
index c7f17ed..5ae2067 100644
--- a/python-paramiko.changes
+++ b/python-paramiko.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mon Dec  7 07:22:31 UTC 2020 - Steve Kowalik <steven.kowalik@suse.com>
+
+- Set environment to utf-8 to allow tests to pass on Python 2. (bsc#1178341) 
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Oct 13 10:51:07 UTC 2020 - Benjamin Greiner <code@bnavigator.de>
 
diff --git a/python-paramiko.spec b/python-paramiko.spec
index 07873b4..30558b1 100644
--- a/python-paramiko.spec
+++ b/python-paramiko.spec
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ find demos -name "*.py" -exec sed -i "/#\!\/usr\/bin\/.*/d" {} \;
 %python_expand %fdupes %{buildroot}%{$python_sitelib}
 
 %check
+export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 %pytest
 
 %files %{python_files}