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Sept 5 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a television interview on Tuesday, without citing evidence, that Western powers had installed Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is of Jewish heritage, as president of Ukraine to cover up the glorification of Nazism.
In justifying its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a “special military operation,” Russia accuses Kyiv’s leaders of being neo-Nazis pursuing a “genocide” of Russian-speakers - an assertion that Kyiv and Western countries dismiss as a baseless pretext for a war of acquisition.
Putin was answering a question from Russian reporter Pavel Zaubin and his comments were shown on Russian state TV.
Zelenskiy, who has said that some of his grandfather’s brothers were killed in the Holocaust, has repeatedly dismissed as false Russian accusations that he has supported neo-Nazis in Ukraine. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey Editing by Alex Richardson)
TASS source (Russian media) : https://tass.com/politics/1670265
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Not justifying it, but the use of the word Nazi seems a lot different in Russia compared to the West. The West is going to use the word Nazi to describe authoritarian governments that engage in genocide. Of the two belligerents in the war, that describes Russia a lot more than Ukraine.
In contrast, I feel like the word Nazi in Russia is used more to describe an existential threat to Russia. Nazis invaded Russia, and Ukraine is a threat on par with Russia.
So the home audience hears this and hears that Putin is attacking Russia’s enemies, and a lot of others are confused as Putin’s Russia seems a lot more fascist and Nazi-like.
Nazi in Russia refers to the forced displacement, prosecution, and rape of ethnic Russians and Communists by the invading Nazi forces throughout the war. The Nazis had a much different view on Western Europeans than they did on Slavs and Jews and Communists, so is this surprising at all?
Whereas the West was treated more or less as though under military occupation (see: France, Norway), the goal of the Nazis during Barbarossa was the extermination of the Slavic peoples.
Russia is the invading force here…
No way is Ukraine anywhere near as threatening as the third reich.
You’re right. But, the use of the word Nazi is going to play differently to Russia than it will to Europe or the USA.
Yes otherwise I agree with your point. The Nazi comparison was quite baffling to most in the West but when viewed from the Russian perspective on history it has a certain warped logic.
Erm. Depends. On the one side Russia doesn’t have the US to send them unending streams of military hardware this time around, on the other I very much doubt Ukraine is going to open a second front to their west.
The greatest threat to the Russian status quo is, indeed, Ukraine’s sanity.
On yet another hand then Putin seems to think we’re masters of 10-D Pachisi.
There were literal swatika wearing Nazis among other far right groups leading the 2014 Euromaiden protests that kicked out the Russian backed president in Ukraine. The leftist groups were anti-protest and also anti-government.
Not everything is about you, Russia. Do they really define WWII by someone attacking them? That’s ignoring a lot.
For context, WWII in Russia is known as The Great Patriotic War.
Granted the USSR took the lion’s share of casualties and Nazi smashing (with Western support) but yeah, they’ve reduced it to *their * war against the Axis forces.
And conveniently forget the USSR was allied with Nazi Germany while they both invaded poland.