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Russia echoed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs view that Zelenskyys Jewish background does not exclude the possibility of a Ukrainian government run by neo-Nazis. The Russian foreign ministry reiterated Lavrovs point on Tuesday that Zelenskyys origins did not conflict with Moscows claims Ukraine was being run by neo-Nazis.
In fact, Russian troops frequently brutal actions in Ukraine have confirmed the Kremlins perception of anything that is identifiable Ukrainian as Nazi, making no distinction between the two. As far as the majority of Ukrainians are concerned, the only Nazis in Ukraine are Russian soldiers who are fighting a genocidal war in Putins name. In Russian autocrat Vladimir Putins version of events, any effort to claim Ukrainian sovereignty is Nazi, an extension of a 20th-century struggle between Russia and Ukrainian nationalists, some of whom had joined the Nazi invaders in their drive for independence from the Soviet Union at the time of the holocaust.
In justifying his initial invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putins stated justification was to de-Naziify Ukraine, ridding it of the Azov Legion, a military unit linked to right-wing extremism, and of the followers of Bandera, the nationalist leader who led the brutal campaigns of Ukrainian independence during the 1930s and 40s. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said one goal of the offensive was denazification of Ukraine, which is part of a long-term attempt by Putin to delegitimize Ukrainian nationalism and sell the invasion to his domestic voters. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his governments launch of a special military operation in ukrain, saying Russian President Vladimir Putins aim is to demilitarize and denazify the country, rather than to t to r t the special military operation in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putins aim is special military operation aimed at demilitarize and denazify a special military operation aimed at Ukraine.
Moscow Invades Ukraine The war in Ukraine is now months old, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government keep invoking fighting the Nazis as justification for war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has cited the Second World War as justifying Russias invasion of Ukraine, saying last week on TV in remarks that his assault was intended to de-Nazify a country -- the president, who was elected by democratically elected Jews, lost relatives to mass murder. In an effort to justify war for Russian citizens, President Vladimir Putin has presented the fight as a fight against the Nazis in Ukraine, despite the fact Ukraine has a democratically elected government, and a Jewish president, and relatives were killed in the Holocaust.
While the entire world can see that most of Ukraine is now rubble, the Kremlin remains extraordinarily sensitive about accusations of war crimes, and continues to insist that Russian forces have only ever targeted military targets. From there, follows Kremlin propaganda lines about Ukrainians suppressing Russians and Russian speakers, perpetrating atrocities and genocide against them, and Russia needs to liberate Russians and Russian speakers who are victims of this supposed Ukrainian nationalism. In short, that is how you get to Putins statement that Putin wants to de-Naziify Ukraine and get rid of the Jewish President of Ukraine, and to also get the neo-Nazis of Russia claiming Putin is Jewish.
Russian autocrat Vladimir Putins talk about his drive to demilitarize and de-nazify Ukraine, a country that has a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and a flourishing Jewish population between 49,000 to 400,000. For years, Putins denied that Ukraine had any right to exist, claiming all Ukrainians were actually Russians . Putin has made no secret that he regards the territory of present-day Ukraine as historically Russian lands.
Putin believes that Ukraine threatens Russia for reasons tied to its imperial past; returning Russian control to territories that Putin believes Russia rightfully holds would be one way to end that threat. Ukraine is insufferable for Putin, as Ukraines government tries to legitimize itself through a judicial court dispute with Russia, which he believes is simultaneously oppressing native Russian speakers and threatening Russias borders. Ukrainian nationalism, in his vision, is a contagion brought into Russias hosts by the Bolsheviks; as the Soviet Union crumbled, with republics ranging from Ukraine to Estonia to Georgia declaring independence, the virus killed Russia.
Alexander Etkind, a Russian-born historian who teaches at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, said that, whether or not Russian neo-Nazi groups and other extremists support Putins aggression in Ukraine, in the present context, no one is further right, or more extreme, than Putin himself. Indeed, although extremist groups in Russia expressed various views on Putins incursion into Ukraine, its biggest Nazi problem is probably within Russia itself, where a number of hard-right hate groups empathize with the Ukrainians and threats to their independence, and struggle to reconcile the reality of Putins incursion into Ukraine with their racist beliefs. Laura Jochusch, professor of Holocaust studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, told NPR via e-mail that Putins claims about the alleged genocidal acts committed by the Ukrainian military against Russians in the Donbass region are entirely groundless, but politically useful for Russian President Vladimir Putin.