Putin says Zelensky ‘isn’t Jewish but a disgrace to the Jewish people’

Speaking at this year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin declared that his “many lifelong Jewish friends” have told him that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “isn’t Jewish but a disgrace to the Jewish people.” This was Putin’s response to a question about why the West fails to understand Moscow’s constant allegations that Ukraine is run by fascists, given that Zelensky is himself Jewish.

After Putin’s remarks, the audience was then presented with a short montage of documentary footage depicting violence committed on Ukrainian and Polish soil during the Second World War. The Russian president told spectators that he anticipated questions about Nazism in Ukraine and requested the video in advance.

In May 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov provoked a scandal (and later a reported apology from Putin to then Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett) when he claimed that Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood,” days after Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day. “[That Zelensky is Jewish] means absolutely nothing. Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews,” Lavrov told an Italian TV show.