On September 5th, Putin once again voiced antisemitic statements, accusing Zelensky, who has Jewish roots, of supporting Nazism. It is worth noting that a very similar statement was made by Putin on June 13th of this year during a meeting with Russian war correspondents, where he also claimed that Zelensky supported Nazism. It seems that antisemitism in Russia not only persists but is also becoming a determining factor in the state's policy. In May of the previous year, Sergey Lavrov sparked an international scandal by claiming that Hitler had Jewish origins. This statement by Russia's top diplomat in no way influenced the Kremlin's rhetoric, which has placed racism at the core of Russia's national ideology.
According to the most modest estimates, there are at least 165,000 Jews in Russia, but their actual number is at least one million people. All of them risk becoming victims of the misanthropic policy cultivated among Russians. Antisemitism has always existed in Russia; one could even argue that Russia has been and remains one of the most hostile states towards Jews. During the time of the Russian Empire, Jewish pogroms were so widespread that they might more appropriately be called deliberate genocide, to which the authorities and law enforcement turned a blind eye. In fact, in the early 20th century, in a number of settlements in the southwestern part of the Russian Empire, one could kill a Jew with impunity; the pogroms bypassed only a small part of the cities.
History has a tendency to repeat itself: 100 years later, in Putin's Russia, there is a resurgence of antisemitism. Putin's judophobic rhetoric has an unhealthy character, although the Kremlin's master tries to hide it at all costs. It is telling that after the start of the war with Ukraine, between 50,000 and 65,000 Jews migrated from Russia due to the growing xenophobia in Russian society. Putin not only hates everyone who is not Russian but also seeks to eliminate them even outside of Russia, which is why the Russian army is committing ethnic genocide against Ukrainians based on their national origin. This is a threat to the entire world: Russia is a nuclear state with a misanthropic ideology. Every country in the world must contribute to stopping the impending catastrophe: sanctions, international isolation for Russia, the severance of diplomatic relations, trade embargoes – only in this way can the Contemporary Third Reich be stopped.
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