Sergey Lavrov’s Comments About Jews – OpEd

Concerning the coverage of what the Russian foreign minister said, RT has been more accurate than instances like CNN’s sleazy tabloid coverage of the topic, as well as the BBC’s Tim Franks, who (among others in Western mass media) falsely said (as aired on NPR during the May 2, 3 PM New York time slot) that Lavrov stated that Hitler was Jewish. FYI, there’s some overview indicating that Hitler might’ve been part Jewish. 

Lavrov is an excellent diplomat. Over the years, he hasn’t exhibited anti-Jewish sentiment. Some years back on Charlie Rose’s PBS show, Lavrov condemned the comments made by Iran’s then president, who belittled the tragic WW II plight of millions of Jews.

Lavrov’s boss Vladimir Putin, grew up with Jews and is known to have Jewish friends and acquaintances. One of Putin’s grade school teachers, a Jew, who has lived in Israel, fondly recalls the Russian president in his youth. The two have reunited with each other.

With an ongoing smear campaign against Russia and the upcoming May 9 Victory Day holiday (commemorating the end of WW II in Europe), the coverage of Lavrov’s comments come at an especially bad time for his country and himself. At age 72 and quite busy of late, Lavrov is more prone to not being as coherent as he otherwise should be. This can happen to the best of us at any age.

He was asked about the ongoing matter of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine, coupled with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish background. Lavrov appears to have awkwardly wanted to note that in some instances, people can find themselves in difficult situations, as evidenced by the WW II era capos and the true-life movie depictions in Europa Europa and The Survivor.

In any event, Lavrov’s comments are certainly not bigoted, along the lines of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, openly advocating the banning of all Russians and Belarusians from athletic competition. The hypocritically arrogant and ignorant selective outrage against Russia getting the upper hand aside, it’s pertinent for Russia’s top diplomat to not give fodder to its adversaries.

Considering Israel’s geopolitical position, it hasn’t been so antagonistic towards Russia. Many Jews are understandably sensitive towards what happened during WW II. A Russian involved follow-up press conference and discussion with Israel’s top brass could serve to conciliate things. 

As excerpted from my February 27 Antiwar.com piece, here’s an overview regarding the Neo-Nazi issue in Kiev regime-controlled Ukraine:

The Neo-Nazi situation in Ukraine meshes with how the US government and Kiev regime were the only two delegations voting against a General Assembly resolution denouncing the glorification of Nazism. As I’ve noted, the official US explanation for its vote is crock.

Over the decades, the US body politic has been influenced by the activism of pro-Stepan Bandera elements in the Ukrainian American community. Dominating the Captive Nations Committee, these individuals influenced the US Congress to pass the Nazi like Captive Nations Week Resolution, portraying Russia and Russians as the benefactors of Communism at the expense of others.

This move understandably offended the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn and offends people in the Russian American community, who’re proud of their dual background. Do Russian lives matter? In Ukraine, monuments honoring pre-Soviet figures Alexander Suvorov and Mikhail Kutuzov get disrespected unlike what’s accorded to the memory of Bandera.

Paul Robinson perhaps best sums up this situation by saying that Ukraine isn’t a Nazi state, while having a Nazi problem. This subject has been definitely downplayed in the US.

Note how US mass media recently covered a Ukrainian granny getting a shooting lesson from a group wearing the fatigues with the logo of a Neo-Nazi militia. The coverage didn’t mention that affiliation. Such oversight is common when the black and red Banderite flag is shown in news clips.

The Neo-Nazi elements have been evident among the forces which have killed and displaced many in the rebel Donbass area over the past eight years. Relying solely on Western mass media, some might be duped into wrongly believing that substantial war related deaths and population movement suddenly began on Ukraine’s Soviet drawn boundary. 

When belittling the Neo-Nazi role in Kev regime-controlled Ukraine, Dr. Mitchell notes his family’s Russian Empire Jewish roots. I sense that my family’s Russian Empire/Soviet Jewish and Russian Orthodox Christian backgrounds, have given me a broader scope, enabling me to make the following observations.

After WW II, the Banderites de-emphasized their anti-Jewish and anti-Polish activity, as they hyped an extreme anti-Russian message. In the US, this is more likely to be accepted:

• The USSR was created to benefit Russians at the expense of others.
• As opposed to – The USSR was created to benefit Jews at the expense of others.

In reality, both are inaccurate. Likewise, with The NYTs’ Juliet Macur distinguishing between “clean athletes” and “Russians” How is that different from categorizing “law abiding citizens” and “Blacks”?

*Michael Averko is a New York based independent foreign policy analyst and media critic.