Vladimir Putin told the world in the lead-up to its attacks on Ukraine that his operation aimed to “denazify” Ukraine.
FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 1, 2022. – Vladimir Putin told the world in the lead-up to Thursday’s attacks on Ukraine that his operation aims to “denazify” Ukraine, a country with a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust and who heads a Western-backed, democratically elected government.
World War II, in which the Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people, is a linchpin of Russia’s national identity. In today's Russia, officials bristle at any questioning of the USSR’s role.certain historical truths from the war. They say Russia has tried to magnify the Soviet role in defeating the Nazis while playing down any collaboration by Soviet citizens in the persecution of Jews.
Some of Ukraine’s politicians since 2014 have sought to glorify nationalist fighters from the era, focusing on their opposition to Soviet rule rather than their collaboration and documented crimes against Jews, as well as Poles living in Ukraine.
The legislation sought to fight back against claims that Poland, a victim of Nazi Germany, bore responsibility for the Holocaust. The law angered Israel, where many felt it was an attempt to whitewash the fact that some Poles did kill Jews during the German occupation during World War II. Yad Vashem also came out against the legislation.
Israel came under fire from historians in 2020 after a speech by Putin and a separate video presentation at a meeting of world leaders in Jerusalem to commemorate the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, which they said skewed toward his narrative and away from the historical facts.Israel was conspicuously muted in its criticism of Russia in the lead-up to the attacks on Ukraine.
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