Putin now talks more about “Nazis in Kiev.” The expert says it’s no coincidence.
Putin digitally participated in a conference with the Pobeda organization this week. There he presented his justifications for the aggressive war against Ukraine.
The short version
- Russian President Vladimir Putin insulted a museum director during a video conference.
- Putin uses the events of World War II in his speech to legitimize the ongoing war against Ukraine, according to researcher and historian Ovind Kobrod.
- Putin’s focus on the Nazi persecution of Jews relates to the evolution of the war, and his accusations against Ukraine grow as the brutality of the war grows.
The summary is created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and quality guaranteed by Aftenposten journalists.
Alexander Shkolnikov is probably used to being the boss. After all, he is the museum director. But this week he was put in his place like a schoolboy. This is the head of all leaders in Russia.
During a video conference, Vladimir Putin set his eyes on the museum director.
Put it in: How many Jews were murdered in Ukraine by the Nazis and their conspirators?
Museum Director: Eh, I don’t quite know, Vladimir Vladimirovich.
Put it in: Then I’ll tell you. 1.5 million people. Women, the elderly, children. 25% of all victims. Who was behind this?
Museum DirectorateR: Well, actually, I think these are the Ukrainians themselves…
Put it in: Which Ukrainians?
Museum Director: …
Put it in: Which Ukrainians?
Museum Director: What do you mean? In what context?
Put it in: In the true sense of the word.
Museum director: Ah, well, um.
Put it in: Who are the Ukrainians who were behind this?
Museum Director: It was the Nazis.
Put it in: Yes. And it wasn’t just them. There were conspirators, and the chief rabbi also spoke. The Germans, even the SS soldiers, did not want to participate in this mass execution. This is necessary to understand the current situation. So you should know this.
The museum director looks embarrassed.
Watch the full video on Russian here. He. She Independent Russian newspaper Meduza He reproduced the conversation in written form.
What would Putin gain from humiliating one of his henchmen?
Putin was questioned by Alexander Shkolnikov, museum director at the Museum of the Patriotic War.
-Does not comment on the fist
“What he says is absurd,” says Oyvind Copprud. He is a researcher and historian at the Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies.
– It is true that many Ukrainians participated in the genocide of the Jews. But today’s attempt to hold Ukrainians responsible for the genocide of Jews is something he is doing only to legitimize his brutal war. It is also interesting that here, too, he absolves the German Nazis of responsibility. Throughout Europe, Nazi Germany had partners in many countries – and unfortunately also in Ukraine, he says:
However, Putin using something that happened during World War II to justify a bloody war of aggression today is completely absurd.
Coprud thinks this statement is interesting for two main reasons:
1. The course of the war
When Putin went to war, he justified it, among other things, by disarmament and de-Nazification of Ukraine.
The latter has been ridiculed in the West. First, Putin himself has been shown to have neo-Nazi groups fighting for him. Secondly, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, himself has a Jewish background.
But Putin continues to send the same message. “Medusa» He writes that Putin has now reached a new level in his rhetoric.
Kopperud believes that Putin’s focus on the Nazi persecution of Jews relates to, among other things, the course of the war.
Putin failed to seize Kiev with a lightning strike. The war is now getting tougher and tougher. With the passage of time, Putin needs more and stronger reasons to justify the war, says the researcher.
He believes that this is why this message is now increasingly visible.
– And at the same time, it becomes very easy to understand. Turning all opponents into Nazis is deeply rooted in traditional Soviet rhetoric, which Putin is deeply influenced by. This also fits with the way Putin has for many years tailored history to suit his authoritarian nationalism, he says.
As happened in St. Petersburg this summer when Putin said Zelensky was not Jewish and called him “a disgrace to the Jewish people.”
For the statement, reap Big applause.
– This is a statement aimed at the Russian people, and an attempt to legitimize the war. And Putin will portray it as just fighting against the Jews. He probably doesn’t care that the rest of Europe doesn’t take him seriously and laughs, says Coprod.
But not everyone is laughing. This worries the expert.
2. Putin plays on well-known and dangerous conspiracy theories
Koprud recorded more and more stories about the “Jew Zelensky” in communities in several places in Europe.
Putin is portraying it as if Zelensky is a Jew being used as a puppet by the West. But in many environments it is the other way around. And here is the Jew Zelensky who controls the others, and he says and clarifies:
– This is linked to Jewish conspiracy theories that there is a Jewish network controlling the world. This spreads using social and alternative media. He says Putin is trying to sow doubts about Zelensky’s credibility far beyond the Russians, who need a justification for war.
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