“Can’t keep quiet any longer”
German embassy counters Russian Nazi comparison
03/06/2022, 04:35 am
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The Russian Embassy in South Africa launches a Twitter post celebrating the attack on Ukraine as a liberation from Nazis. This infuriated the German diplomats in Pretoria, who reacted as “experts on National Socialism” – and earned a lot of praise.
The German embassy in South Africa has rejected Russia’s claim that the invasion of Ukraine is intended to “denazify” the country. “Sorry, but we can’t remain silent about this any longer,” the German embassy in Pretoria tweeted on Saturday in response to a post from the Russian embassy that Putin’s forces were fighting Nazis.
In its post, the Russian mission abroad initially thanked South Africans for a large number of letters of solidarity, “both from individuals and from organizations”. “We appreciate your support and are glad that you are on our side when Russia fights against National Socialism in Ukraine like it did 80 years ago,” the Russian diplomats tweeted.
“That’s just way too cynical,” countered the German embassy in its reply. “What Russia is doing in Ukraine is slaughtering innocent children, women and men for its own profit,” the German response said. “This is definitely not a ‘fight against National Socialism,'” the German mission in Pretoria continued. “Shame on anyone who falls for it.” She concluded her Twitter response with the words: “Unfortunately, we are something of an expert on Nazism.”
Deutscher Post deserves praise
The critical reaction from the German diplomats had more than 13,000 retweets and nearly 60,000 likes as of Saturday night, earning widespread praise in the comments. At the same time, the Russian post had received a good 5,200 retweets and 16,000 likes.
The Twitter controversy provides additional explosiveness, since South Africa, along with 18 other African countries, abstained from the UN resolution against Russia’s war in Ukraine. Pretoria said it was “deeply concerned” about the escalation and its consequences, but did not want to drive a deeper wedge between the camps.
Vladimir Putin does not officially speak of war in Ukraine. For him, the whole thing is a “special military operation” to “demilitarize and denazify” the country. According to his propaganda, the Russian troops should prevent a “genocide”. The Russian state media also adopt these definitions.
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