Kremlin mum on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised to Israel over anti-Semitic comments

Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, on Friday twice dodged
questions from journalists about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin
apologised to Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett over his foreign minister
Sergei Lavrov’s anti-Semitic remarks which he made this week.

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In a release, Israel on Thursday said that Putin apologised
to Bennett. However, Russia made no mention of the apology in their release.

“At the moment, we have nothing to add to what was said in
the readout,” Peskov said on his regular press briefing call.

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Earlier this week, Israel expressed their anger at Lavrov’s
comment that Adlof Hitler hailed from a Jewish family. The assertion has no
basis, however.

Asked on Friday by a journalist if Lavrov should apologize,
Peskov replied, “I’m not sure I understand your question.”

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Meanwhile, Putin’s top diplomat Lavrov sought to justify
Moscow’s absurd goal of “de-Nazifying” Ukraine — a baseless
portrayal of the country, which is led by a Jewish president — by claiming
Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood” and that “the most ardent
anti-Semites are usually Jews.”

Bennett called the assertions “lies” and Israel’s
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid described them as “unforgiveable and
outrageous,” warning that Israel had “tried to maintain good
relations with Russia, but there is a line, and this time the line has been
crossed.”

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“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. No war
today is the Holocaust or is like the Holocaust,” said Bennett.

Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust in
World War Two.

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Mr Lavrov made the remarks in an interview on the Italian TV
programme Zona Bianca on Sunday, days after Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance
Day, one of the most solemn occasions in the Israeli calendar.