Russia is about to resume a showdown with Israel, likely to get bilateral relations into the Cold War, as domestic anti-Semitism is growing.
The statement by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, claiming Hitler had Jewish roots, caused severe reactions in Israel.
Those words by Lavrov came as part of Russian effort to change the narratives and rewrite the history of World War II. The Kremlin has launched an information campaign, in fact, to refute the Holocaust tragedy. Lavrov’s statement manipulates to the conclusion that Hitler’s policy on the Jews was not genocide over his Jewish origin.
Moscow is hinting the Holocaust emerged within ethnic groups, which is a dirty fabrication without any scientific evidence. Those statements by Lavrov are to use the concept of ‘Nazis’ for Jewish people, whose views and policies condemn Russia’s actions.
With those words used by Russians only for domestic audiences, that practice is extremely dangerous. Russia deliberately had recourse to the idea of fighting against fascism to bolster chauvinism and mobilize the people in support of the Putin regime. The Kremlin seeks to monopolize the victory over Nazis in World War II, which means the fact of Holocaust should be eliminated, with the greatest losses attributed to the people of Russia, as Moscow’s role in fighting against Nazism is believed to be exceptional.
The invasion of Ukraine, with a view to grab the land and annex it to Russia as part of reviving the empire, also had the aim to ‘denazify’, for Russian people to support it. Russia, meanwhile, in official statements by the Foreign Ministry and propaganda, blames any nation, defending its sovereignty and independence or refusing to enter Russia’s zone of interests and obey Moscow, for Nazism. Russian propaganda accused the U.S., Great Britain, EU nations of Nazism when their policies run counter to the Kremlin’s interests.
With the word ‘Nazi’ applied to Jews, the Kremlin is signaling anti-Semitism for Russian people. The Jews were an oppressed national minority in imperial Russia, with anti-Semitism being a state policy, peaking in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Foreign Minister of Hitler’s Germany, Ribbentrop, claimed that Stalin told him he was determined to put an end to ‘Jewish dominance’, mainly among intellectuals. Some communist Jews who fled Germany were extradited to the Third Reich. Lavrov also claims the most ardent anti-Semites are Jews, as a rule.
Russia often strikes historical sites of the Holocaust, in Kyiv and Kharkov, e.g., in the war in Ukraine.
Those statements by the Russian Foreign Ministry confirm that Russia’s state institutions have degraded, as disinformation, insolence, zero empathy, masculine anti-intellectualism and conscious irrationality have become a common thing for them.
Following Lavrov’s statements, the Russian Foreign Ministry, in a demarche, invited the Hamas to Moscow, on the Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day in Israel. In this way, Moscow shows that developing relations with Islamic terrorists and their sponsors is a priority. This allows Russia to rely on their support when fighting against the U.S. and its allies, pushing them to use force against their geopolitical opponents.
In addition, the Kremlin needs a new enemy image, amid the failed Russian war in Ukraine. For this purpose, it is likely to resume the state policy of anti-Semitism.
