Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov compared Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, a Jew, to Hitler and accused Jews of anti-Semitism.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday called Mr Lavrov’s comments a “terrible historical mistake” and said he was calling on the Russian ambassador for consultations and would apologize.
Asked on Sunday by Italy’s Rete 4 about Russia’s allegations that it invaded Ukraine to “disinfect” the country, Mr Lavrov said Ukraine could still have Nazi elements, even if some figures, including Zelensky, are Jews.
“When they say, ‘What a nationalization it is if we are Jews,’ well, I think Hitler was also of Jewish descent, so that doesn’t mean anything,” Mr Lavrov said, speaking through an interpreter.
He added: “We have long heard wise Jewish people say that the greatest anti-Semites are the Jews themselves.
Russian officials have repeatedly claimed that one of their goals in invading Ukraine was to remove Nazi elements from its government.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the invasion of Ukraine is justified because the country’s leaders are nationalists and neo-Nazis who must be stopped from committing genocide against Russians and Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine. He did not provide evidence of the allegations.
Mr Lavrov seems to have expanded on the conspiracy theory that Hitler’s paternal grandfather was a Jew, first popularized in a 1953 memoir by Hitler’s lawyer Hans Frank, who claimed to have found evidence of alleged Jewish ancestry. of the Nazi leader.
These claims have been rejected by popular historians.
In the Soviet Union, and later in Russia, the terms “Nazi” and “fascist” are often used to denigrate all opponents, including opposition activists and foreign critics.
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