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

You can verify if this is the correct representation here if you want to

  • Sem@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    As a russian I can say that Putin is definitely crazy. He always was crazy a littlw due to his KGB past, you know, some tendency to overestimate impact of special servies and conspiracy. But I guess that the last drop was a covid pandemic when he sitted alone in bunker for a year in a total isolation. He totally out of mind. I do not think that one should seriously look at his speeches. Also, as a native russian speaker I watched a video interview and can proove that the translation is cirrect. He really said it…

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      I hope you guys can find a way to get a better national government soon.

      • Sem@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        Thank you. I hope too. But now it is not safe to be being in Russia and trying to get better government… So, for myself I just decided to leave the country. I’m not ready to risk my safety and safety of my family trying to protest against Putin. One can say that I’m a coward, but for me it change nothing: I prefer to be a healthy free coward instead of tortured hero in prison. To be honest, my only hope is that he die soon, there are a lot of rumors about his health problem, some cancer.

        • ours@lemmy.film
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          10 months ago

          Next in line is whatever treacherous bastard that manages to wrangle power for himself.

          The only thing worse than a bastard like Putin is a smart and competent bastard.

          But still, I somehow hope Russia manages to find a path toward a competent and stable democracy somehow.

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    Zelenskiy was elected in 2019, during Trump’s misrule. We all know who Trump was taking orders from.

    I love how absolutely desperate that makes Putin look.

  • Fazoo@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    Ladies, Gentlemen, and Others… Apparently you can, in fact, make this shit up.

    What a world.

  • whileloop@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    We’ve been pointing out that Zelenskyy is Jewish since the beginning. You know, for day five-hundred-and-something of the three day special military operation, that’s a pretty good comeback. /S

    • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Right? This gave me such deja vu, I had to double check it wasn’t an accidental repost from back then…

    • ours@lemmy.film
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      10 months ago

      Nah, typical of Soviet-era trick of “say one thing, mean another” confusion bullshit.

  • bob@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    Whatever he’s smoking he’s gotta either share or quit hitting it for a bit

  • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    10 months ago

    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.

      • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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        10 months ago

        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.

        • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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          10 months ago

          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.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        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.

    • mjhagen@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Not everything is about you, Russia. Do they really define WWII by someone attacking them? That’s ignoring a lot.

      • ours@lemmy.film
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        10 months ago

        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.

    • zephyreks [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      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.

  • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    I…

    Wut?

    What now?

    My mind just gets stuck in an endless loop with this dumb gymnastics

    • Podunk@lemmyfly.org
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      10 months ago

      If you wanna be supremely dissapointed on how long the worst of the worst can last after they commit horrible atrocities, look up pol pot. Assuming this man will pay consequences for his actions anytime in the near future is, unfortunately, very naïve.

  • PlatypusXray@feddit.de
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    10 months ago

    He is right! Nothing is beyond them! They are monsters! They even put a lunatic on the top of the Russian government in order to destroy Russia! And it is working! Wake up, sheepliks!

  • rolandtb303@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    says a jew lmaoooooo

    mf needs to learn that he can’t diss someone if he has a same trait as them

    • Flyberius [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      He isn’t dissing. He’s accusing the west of putting a Jew in charge in order to downplay accusations of Ukraine becoming a hotbed for Neo-Nazis.

      And to reiterate what eight said in the other comment, you read what he was saying and took it to mean he was insulting him for being Jewish?

      You are telling on yourself.

      • rolandtb303@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        i can get the reason why someone would believe the whole cover up thing, and to some point i can agree (after all it’s the first thing people go to when you mention the more concerning aspects of azov battalion, and just getting that same response over and over is quite annoying, they’re like broken records lol).

        just funny that another jew’s saying it, that’s all.

        • Flyberius [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          10 months ago

          I don’t see how it’s remotely relevant to the point he is trying to make, or how it is funny. Putin’s jewishness has no bearing on it