Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the continued fight against Nazism amid preparations to celebrate Victory Day, which is observed on May 9 each year. It marks the end of World War II or what the Russians call ‘the Great Patriotic War.’

What Putin has to say about Russia’s fight against Nazism

Putin, as per a statement released by Kremlin, said “I sincerely wish the Ukrainian veterans of the Great Patriotic War the strength of their hearts, good health and long life, and to all the people of Ukraine a peaceful and just future”, adding, “Seventy-seven years ago, thanks to the courage and heroism of the front-line soldiers and partisans, and the tenacity and selflessness of the workers on the home front, fascism, which sought to enslave Europe and caused pain and suffering to tens of millions of people, was crushed”. 

However, the Russian president noted that Nazism was again on the rise, saying “Unfortunately, today Nazism is once again raising its head and trying to impose its barbaric, inhuman order. Our sacred duty is to prevent the retaliation of the ideological heirs of those who were defeated in the Great Patriotic War.” 

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In a separate statement from Kremlin addressed to “heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics”, Putin noted, “today our military personnel, like their ancestors, are fighting shoulder to shoulder for the liberation of their native land from Nazi filth”. 

It concluded “Today, our common duty is to prevent the revival of Nazism, which brought so much suffering to the people of different countries. It is necessary to preserve and pass on to posterity the truth about the events of the war years”. 

Russia’s Nazi rhetoric since the start of the war in Ukraine

Russia has used Nazi and World War II rhetoric since troops were sent in on February 24. Ukraine has severely opposed this, with President Volodymyr Zelensky questioning how he could be a Nazi, considering the leader of the war-torn nation comes from a Jewish family that witnessed the Holocaust. 

In Zelensky’s own address on Victory Day, the Ukrainian president compared the destruction wreaked by Nazis across Europe to the consequences of Russian troops’ actions in the eastern European nation. 

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Russia has been accused of attacks on the Holocaust memorial, Babin Yar, in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, during airstrikes. 

However, things came to a boil when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently made controversial comments in an interview with an Italian channel. Lavrov noted that Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood, and said “The wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews” while defending Russia’s decision to “de-nazify” Ukraine. 

Israel blows a fuse 

While Lavrov’s comments drew the ire of Zelensky, and the Ukrainian government, who accused Russia of threatening not just the war-torn nation, but Jews over the world, Israel took a firm stance against Moscow – despite remaining balanced, otherwise, during the conflict. 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, “Such lies are meant to blame the Jews themselves for the most terrible crimes in history and thus free the oppressors of the Jews from their responsibility.” 

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Meanwhile, Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid called his Russian counterpart’s words “unforgivable”. Israel also sought clarifications over the comments, which Kremlin gave in a detailed handout. 

Hitler’s ancestry and Putin’s eventual apology 

Lavrov’s statement about Hitler’s identity stems from the fact that the German dictator’s ancestry is not completely known. History doesn’t seem to have records of who Hitler’s grandfather is, which resulted in theories circulating that the head of the Third Reich came from Jewish ancestry. 

Sara Brown, executive director of Change, the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education said that this myth should not be taken seriously, and speaking to The Times of Israel, noted that the circulation of this story proves anti-semitism didn’t end in 1945. 

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Brown further stressed the danger of this assumption since it would mean “a Jewish individual was the architect of the mass murder of six million Jews and millions more”. 

Lavrov’s comments were labelled “blood libel” by the head of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, and Putin eventually had to apologize for the same to his Israeli counterpart. Bennett’s office released a statement that the Israeli PM had accepted Putin’s apology. 

Moscow justifies its Nazi rhetoric  

After the fracas with Israel, the Russian foreign ministry came out with a detailed statement about neo-nazism in Ukraine and defended Moscow’s stance. 

It argued that Zelensky’s Jewish identity wasn’t enough to disprove the existence of neo-Nazis in Ukraine, since history shows examples of cooperation between Nazis and Jews.

“In Poland and other countries of Eastern Europe, the Germans appointed Jewish industrialists as heads of ghettos and Jewish councils (“Judenrats”), some of whom are remembered for absolutely monstrous deeds. Jakub Leikin in Warsaw conducted surveillance of the Jews and reported everything to the German occupation administration, dooming his compatriots to certain, and sometimes painful death”, the statement reads. 

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Referring to H Dreyfus, a professor of history at Tel Aviv University, Moscow noted Jewish complicity in the Holocaust is a “marginal phenomenon” but remains a subject of research. 

The statement also took note of rising antisemitism in Ukraine, saying “Nationalist parties began to promote their anti-Semitic agenda immediately after the collapse of the USSR, but have become especially active in recent years. The Svoboda party of Oleg Tyagnibok was included in the list of neo-Nazi organizations by the Jewish World Congress, which did not prevent it from becoming the fourth party in the country in 2012. Since the coup in 2014, anti-Semitism has flourished in Ukraine.”

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Moscow’s statement also referred to Bennett’s observation during his time as Minister of Diaspora Relations about rising anti-Semitic events in Ukraine in 2017. 

“Ukraine has become the leader among all the countries of the former USSR in terms of the number of anti-Semitic incidents, and some publications indicate that Ukraine generally surpasses all the countries of the former USSR combined in their number”, the statement read. 

Do Moscow’s claims hold water? 

Moscow’s claims of antisemitism in Ukraine are not without basis. Firstly, the Azov Battalion comprises far-right members or neo-nazis drawn from the Patriot of Ukraine gang and the Social National Assembly (SNA). 

The battalion was formed in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in February 2014 and the Donbas insurgency. While the Azov Battalion was designated as a “dangerous organisation” in 2016 by Facebook, and then put on the same pedestal as Islamic State (IS) and banned in 2019, the social media site reversed its stance after the Russian invasion, allowing praise for this neo-Nazi outfit. 

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There have been unpleasant incidents against Jews in Ukraine, but none of extreme violence, as per The Jerusalem Post. Three hanukkiot erected during Hanukkah were kicked over, while a Sholem Aleichem statue and a memorial near Babin Yar were marked with swastikas in 2021. 

The media outlet also noted that there are marches honouring the Waffen SS in Lviv, and Kyiv too saw such support in April 2020. 

Zelensky signed the “On Preventing and Combating Anti-Semitism in Ukraine” law, but it doesn’t specify penalties, as per The Jerusalem Post.

Moscow’s statement referred to this, saying “Everyday and political anti-Semitism and Nazism are not suppressed, on the contrary, they are nurtured. The authorities and law enforcement agencies are calm about the Judeophobic cries at the “Bandera” marches, all because the current Kyiv regime is confident in its infallibility.”

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Despite Ukraine’s anti-semitic elements, the Washington-based Pew Research Center conducted a poll in 2016, showing only 5% of those surveyed in Ukraine felt uncomfortable around Jews, while 83% of Ukrainians looked upon them favourably. The Jerusalem Post also noted Ukraine boasts of the lowest amount of antisemitism in Eastern Europe, and probably western Europe as well. 

Nazi rhetoric and the Russian identity 

Russia’s apology for Lavrov’s comments is not a complete one. Putin’s comment came due to the reference to Hitler’s bloodline, and not the overall Nazi rhetoric Moscow has espoused. 

Doubling down on this sentiment on Victory Day – when the Red Army of the erstwhile Soviet Union defeated the Nazis during World War II, shows why Russia needs to push the neo-nazi agenda regarding Ukraine and Zelensky. 

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Robert Rozett, senior historian at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem noted, “For Russia, the fight against Nazi Germany in World War II continues to be a touchstone for Russian identity”. He explained the Russian thought process, saying “‘We are now fighting an enemy that is similar to that which we vanquished in World War II’.”

Ukrainians are shaping their identity around the Nazi rhetoric too, with Zelensky comparing Moscow’s actions to barbarism during the Second World War. In his address, Zelensky noted that Ukrainians would be victorious against fascist forces again, just as they were when Hitler’s forces swept across Europe.