Putin apologizes to Israel for Lavrov’s statements on Hitler’s “Jewish blood”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized for remarks made by his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, over Adolf Hitler’s “Jewish blood”, Israeli Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett’s office said.

“During a telephone conversation, Benett accepted Putin’s apology for Lavrov’s words and thanked the Russian president for explaining the attitude of the Jewish people and the Holocaust,” the Israeli prime minister said.

Lavrov said in an interview with Mediaset, an Italian broadcaster, on May 1, the Israeli side said.

The Kremlin, for its part, said Putin had a telephone conversation with Bennett, without apologizing.

According to the Kremlin, the leaders “emphasized the special importance of the May 9 peoples to the peoples of Russia and Israel,” but Putin called for “health and prosperity to be passed on to veterans in Israel,” while Bennett “noted the Red Army’s key role in defeating Nazism.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to explain on Monday when Lavrov had equated the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky with Hitler in a television interview.

Lavrov defended Putin’s declared war goal of “denaturing” Ukraine, and said that Zelensky’s Jewish origins did not weaken Putin’s position.

The Russian minister said Zelensky may indeed be a Jew, but “Adolf Hitler also had Jewish blood.”

“It means absolutely nothing. Wise Jews say the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews,” Lavrov told Italian television channel Rete4 on Sunday night, causing outrage in Israel.

“Foreign Minister Lavrov’s remarks are unforgivable and horrific statements, as well as terrible mistakes in history,” Israeli Foreign Minister Jair Lapid said in a statement on Monday.

“Jews did not kill themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti-Semitism,” he added.

“My grandfather was not killed by Jews, but by the Nazis,” the minister said, advising Lavrov to “open a history book.”

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