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Putin’s critics have called him an anti-Semitic, drawing parallels with the anti-Semitism of the Soviet state under Joseph Stalin.
Vladimir Putin accused Jews of attacking the Russian Orthodox Church and suggested that they lacked family and “roots,” the latest antisemitic statement from the Russian leader since his 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Putin made the allegation during his lengthy annual press conference ahead of the New Year, which lasted four hours on Thursday. In the middle of of the event, Putin addressed punitive actions against the Russian Orthodox Church elsewhere in Europe. The church is considered to be closely tied to Putin’s regime, and its leaders have been expelled from countries such as Bulgaria and Estonia.
Putin said the church “tortured” and blamed Jews.
“They are pushing aside the Church, but they are not even atheists,” Putin said. “They are other people without beliefs, atheists, they are of Jewish ethnicity, but have you seen them in a synagogue? I don’t believe it. “
After adding that the alleged sides of the Church in conflict were not Orthodox Christians or Muslims, he added: “They are other people without parents or memory, without roots. They don’t appreciate what we appreciate and most other Ukrainians appreciate too.
Putin’s critics called this anti-Semitic, pointing to parallels with the anti-Semitism of the Soviet state under Joseph Stalin, when the Kremlin persecuted Jews and accused them of being “rootless cosmopolitans. “
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow who left Russia after refusing to support the invasion of Ukraine, tweeted that Putin was “reviving Soviet-era tropes like ‘rootless cosmopolitans,’” and referenced the “Doctors’ Plot,” another of Stalin’s antisemitic campaigns.
“This echoes the Stalinist antisemitic rhetoric of the “Doctors’ Plot” (1948-53),” he wrote. “History teaches us: hate must be challenged. We call on European leaders to condemn these statements!”
Putin and his deputies used anti-Semitic rhetoric in their arguments for the invasion of Ukraine. Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish, Putin has claimed that Ukraine is ruled by a “neo-Nazi regime. “
At the press conference, Putin also blamed Iran for the overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Assad is Russia’s best friend and now lives in exile there. Putin said he planned to meet with Assad but had not yet done so. He also said he was open to an assembly with President-elect Donald Trump.
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