That is why Vladimir Putin apologized to Israel

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week compared Hitler to Ukraine in the war and caused outrage. In an interview with an Italian television station, Lavrov justified the attack on Ukraine. Because after all The Nazis work in Ukraine.

This is despite the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky is of Jewish descent! Lavrov said that Hitler also had Jewish blood. “It makes no sense. The intelligent Jewish people say that the most radical opponents of the Jews are the Jews in general.”

Unload Government Israel was angry with Israel. Foreign Minister Jair Lobid is a “Unforgivable, defamatory statement“And a terrible historical error”. He then demanded an apology.

In fact, the next day Vladimir apologized Putin himself, frankly. Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett accepted the apology.

Is Putin finally showing humanity? No, the reason is different, says Russian expert Ulrich Schmidt: “Putin’s apology to Israel must be seen in the context of this historical policy.”

In January 2020, Putin pointed out that 40 percent of the victims of the Holocaust were Soviet citizens. “He did not want to see the Soviet Union compared to the perpetrators of World War II, but with the victims,” ​​says Schmidt.

As a reminder: the Nazi expansionist war continued to spread to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. “In this way, Putin wants to connect the Soviet past with the memory of the Holocaust,” says Schmidt.