Serghei Lavrov the other evening on Rete4 during the broadcast White Zone by Giuseppe Brindisi narrated the Moscow rhetoric on the war in Ukraine. Arousing the outrage of Israel and the worldwide Jewish community when he said that Volodymyr Zelensky, Jew, you lead a country infested by Nazis, because "in my opinion Hitler was also of Jewish origin".
A blasting statement. Particularly in Israel, which has so far tried to maintain good relations with Moscow. Naphthali Bennett speaks of "serious" statements: "Immediately stop resorting to the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a tool for political controversy "because," as already said in the past, no war today is the Holocaust and is comparable to it".
Il Israeli foreign ministry he immediately summoned the Russian ambassador to Tel Aviv for "clarification" on what the minister said Yair Lapid defined statements "unforgivable and outrageous", As well as"a terrible historical mistake". "The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse the Jews of anti-Semitism ".
The premier Mario Draghi he commented at the end of a tense day: "In Italy, unlike in Russia, there is freedom to express opinions, even when they are clearly false and aberrant. What Lavrov said is abhorrent. And as for the Hitler part, it's really obscene. There was talk of an interview but in reality it was a rally. We must ask ourselves if it is acceptable to invite a person who asks to be interviewed without any cross-examination. It's not great, it's not great professionally ".
Lavrov also said that "for some time now we have heard the wise Jewish people say that the greatest anti-Semites are precisely the Jews". "Atrocious comments”Which, says the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro kuleba, show "anti-Semitism deeply rooted in the Russian elite".
There is also the strong resentment already expressed by the Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem and by Yad vashem, Shoah Museum, for the comparison made by Ukrainian exponents between the Bucha massacre and the genocide of the Jews. Just the director of Yad vashem, Dani Dayan, defines "false, delusional and dangerous”Lavrov's words, explaining that they have their roots in an element that has remained obscure relating to the origins of Hitler's paternal grandfather on which“ completely unfounded conspiracy theories were built according to which Hitler himself was Jewish ”.
Lavrov also later trodden the hand stating that nationalist forces such as the Azov battalion and others fighting for Kiev “They have the swastika tattooed on their skin and they read the Mein Kampf. Western mercenaries and officers fight in their ranks ". Then he said that Zelensky "Sabotaged the peace negotiations". Moscow will therefore continue its "special military operation", which will not end with the announcement of a victory on May 9, as some hypothesize: "Our military does not plan actions based on a date".
Lavrov against Italy
From Rome, says the Russian minister, they arrived "statements that went beyond good diplomatic standards"and "Italy is in the front row among those who adopt and promote anti-Russian sanctions. For us it was a surprise ". Finally, he reiterated the Russian condition that his gas be paid by the importing countries in rubles. The aim, he explains, is to prevent this money from being "stolen" by Europeans, as they are doing with the euros and dollars deposited in their banks to which Moscow cannot have access due to the freeze imposed by the sanctions.
The EU criticizes Italy for hosting Russian journalists
The European Union, through its spokesperson, has criticized Italy because its television invites Russian media journalists blocked by sanctions, such as Sputnik and Russia Today. The spokesperson warned local televisions not to evade Europe's sanctions against Russian propaganda on Ukraine.
"The European Union has adopted sanctions on disinformation and information manipulation since 2 March“, With the suspension of Russia Today and Sputnik in Europe, the spokesman recalled. "This is an exceptional, targeted and temporary measure, taken in a very specific and unprecedented context. It is important to emphasize that, of course, freedom of expression is of paramount importance, but this is not about censoring opinions, it is not a censorship of opinions. Journalists who have worked for such media are not affected by the sanctions, but there is a non-circumvention clause and this non-circumvention clause also applies to journalists. Therefore freedom of expression cannot be invoked by other media to circumvent sanctions ”.
The Supervisory Commission in Italy is also dealing with the presence of Russian journalists in Italian television programs, which involved the Copasir to assess whether the reporters hosted can be considered Kremlin officials and possibly an expression of the secret services, and if this puts national security at risk.