Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has again sparked accusations of anti-Semitism against himself after compared Russia’s international isolation over the war in Ukraine to the killing of Jews in Europe during the Holocaust. In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin was already forced to apologize to Israel because of Lavrov’s comments about Hitler’s alleged Jewish origins, reports the BBC’s Russian service.
Sergei Lavrov compared US military aid to Ukraine to the actions of Hitler (as well as Napoleon) during his annual press conference on Wednesday.
“Just as Napoleon mobilized almost all of Europe against the Russian Empire, just as Hitler mobilized and captured and put under arms most European countries and threw them against the Soviet Union, now the United States has formed a coalition of almost all Europeans who are members of NATO and not only, by members of the EU and through Ukraine, through proxies, are waging war against our country with the same task – the final solution of the “Russian question”, said the Russian foreign minister.
“Just as Hitler wanted to finally solve the ‘Jewish question’, so now, if you read Western politicians, they say unequivocally that Russia must suffer a strategic defeat,” added Lavrov (quoted by TASS).
The German Nazis pursued the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” (Endlösung der Judenfrage) policy from 1941-1945, which was the deliberate mass killing of European Jews.
Israel accused Lavrov of desecrating the memory of the Holocaust. “Any comparison or juxtaposition of current events with Hitler’s plan for the final solution to exterminate the Jewish people distorts the historical truth, desecrates the memory of the dead and the survivors, and must be resolutely rejected,” the Jewish state’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The European Jewish Congress (EJC) also condemned Lavrov’s remarks and called on him to apologize.
“We are shocked and appalled by the shameful comparison made by Minister Lavrov between the actions of a coalition of democratic countries and Hitler’s persecution and murder of six million Jews,” European Jewish Congress President Ariel Muzikant said in a statement.
German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert called Lavrov’s words “shocking”. “The historical lesson to be learned from this is that Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine will neither be forgotten nor go unpunished,” Seibert was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel.
The French Embassy in Israel called Lavrov’s words “outrageous and shameful”. “The ‘Final Solution’ left an indescribable mark on human history,” the mission said in a statement.
Earlier in Washington Lavrov’s statement was also called insulting and absurd.
“Our first reaction is how dare he compare anything to the Holocaust! Anything, not to mention the war they started!” He said this at a briefing White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Kirby added that since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and then launched a full-scale invasion in 2022, claims that Russians are the victims are nonsense.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has yet to comment on the scandal, and Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the matter.
“After all, there is an exchange here through the ministries of foreign affairs. Let’s leave (the discussion) there,” Peskov said in response to a question about the Kremlin’s position on this case.
Second scandal in six months
In May 2022, leading Israeli media and officials attacked Lavrov after his remarks about Jews and Hitler in an interview with an Italian television company.
Asked how Ukraine could be accused of Nazism if its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was Jewish, the Russian minister said Adolf Hitler was also of Jewish origin and – what’s more – “the most zealous anti-Semites”, Lavrov said, as a rule , Jews.
“I could be wrong, but Adolf Hitler also had Jewish blood. That means absolutely nothing. The wise Jewish people say that the most zealous anti-Semites are usually the Jews. ‘There are black sheep in the family,’ as we say,” he said.
The head of the Israeli government at the time, Naftali Bennett, responded by accusing Lavrov of lying, the purpose of which “is to accuse the Jews themselves of the most terrible crimes in history that have been committed against them, and thus to remove responsibility from the enemies of Israel.”
Less than a week later, the office of the Israeli prime minister announced that Vladimir Putin had apologized for Lavrov’s words. However, the Kremlin did not officially confirm this.
