16:27, 5 September 2023Source: Meduza

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of Ukraine, “local nationalists and anti-Semites” killed one and a half million Jews. He said this  at a meeting of the Russian organizing committee “Victory” . Putin talked about this with the director of the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Alexander Shkolnik. Meduza publishes a transcript of their conversation.

Vladimir Putin: And how many Jews were exterminated in Ukraine by the Nazis and collaborators, about whom the Chief Rabbi of Russia just spoke?

Schoolboy: I can’t answer exactly, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Vladimir Putin: I’ll tell you. And I’ll tell you. That’s one and a half million people. Women, old people, children. One and a half million people. If only six million were destroyed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, then this is a quarter. Twenty-five percent of the victims. Alexander Yakovlevich, and who did it in Ukraine?

Schoolboy: Well, actually, this was done, among other things, by the Ukrainians themselves, who joined …

Vladimir Putin: What are the Ukrainians?

Schoolboy: … to the divisions.

Vladimir Putin: What are the Ukrainians?

Student: What do you mean? I mean, well?

Vladimir Putin: In the truest sense.

(Student tries to answer)

Vladimir Putin: There were Ukrainians there who were saving other people. Who destroyed?

Schoolboy: It was the Nazis.

Putin: Yes. It wasn’t just the Nazis. These were the same collaborators that the Chief Rabbi of Russia has just spoken about. It’s just the Bandera people and others like them who gave direct instructions. The Germans even… even the SS troops did not consider it possible to take part in these mass repressions. They practically handed it all into the hands of local nationalists and anti-Semites. Here. This is directly related to today. And everything we do should not have speculative significance. These are all specific things that are connected with today. Therefore, I also ask you to pay attention to this.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/rEEpAd6zcA4?feature=oembed&iv_load_policy=3&showinfo=0&color=whitePutin said that “Bandera” killed one and a half million Jewsmeduza

On the same day, Vladimir Putin made a statement about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Putin said that “Western curators” put an “ethnic Jew” in charge of Ukraine in order to “cover up the anti-human essence” of modern Ukraine. In July 2023, Putin stated that, according to his “friends who have been Jews since childhood,” Zelensky is “not a Jew, but a disgrace to the Jewish people.”

Recently, the Russian authorities have been constantly making anti-Semitic statements. So, in May 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Israeli government of supporting the “neo-Nazi regime in Kiev”, and in January 2023, the head of the department, Sergei Lavrov, compared the US policy towards Russia with Hitler’s actions during the Holocaust.

(C)MEDUZA 2023