Putin Has Decided It’s Okay to Be Antisemitic
For years, Vladimir Putin worked hard to demonstrate his philosemitic credentials. He cultivated Jewish communities at home and boosted diplomatic and economic ties between Russia and Israel, including implementing visa-free travel for citizens of both. In 2003, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon referred to Putin as a “true friend of Israel,” and Putin has described Israel (home to at least 1 million Russian-speaking emigrants from the former Soviet Union) as part of “the Russian world.” In April 2017, Russia even recognized West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Now, all that has changed. The transition began with Putin’s mentioning this past June, for the first time, the Jewishness of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A Jew, Putin continued a month later, had been installed by Kyiv’s Western puppeteers to cover up the “Nazi essence” of the regime that the United States and its allies forged in Ukraine. Not long after that, in September, Putin spoke degradingly of a top half-Jewish official who, he said, had “skedaddled” to Israel, leaving a large financial “hole” in the agency where he had worked.
Now, all that has changed. The transition began with Putin’s mentioning this past June, for the first time, the Jewishness of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A Jew, Putin continued a month later, had been installed by Kyiv’s Western puppeteers to cover up the “Nazi essence” of the regime that the United States and its allies forged in Ukraine. Not long after that, in September, Putin spoke degradingly of a top half-Jewish official who, he said, had “skedaddled” to Israel, leaving a large financial “hole” in the agency where he had worked.
