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According to Israeli sources, Vladimir Putin apologizes for Lavrov's comparison with Hitler

2022-05-05T19:33:48.808Z


Sergey Lavrov caused outrage with confused theses about Hitler's alleged "Jewish blood". According to the Israeli government, Russian President Vladimir Putin has now apologized for his minister's statements.


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According to Israeli sources, Vladimir Putin (here at a meeting with UN Secretary-General Guterres in the Kremlin) apologized over the phone for the statements made by his foreign minister.

Photo: Vladimir Astapkovich / dpa

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin apologized for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's comments during a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

This was announced by the office of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett after a telephone call with Putin on Thursday.

Bennett accepted the apology and "thank you for clarifying the President's attitude toward the Jewish people and Holocaust remembrance."

Lavrov had triggered a wave of outrage with his statements in an interview on Italian television about the war in Ukraine.

In the interview, which aired on Sunday, Lavror addressed the alleged need for "denazification" that Russia uses to justify its attack on Ukraine - despite the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is of Jewish descent.

Lavrov said that Hitler too had "Jewish blood."

'That doesn't mean anything.

The wise Jewish people say that the most fervent anti-Semites are usually Jews.«

Israel summoned Russian ambassadors for talks

Israel's Foreign Minister Jair Lapid then demanded an apology.

Lavrov advocated "a reversal of the Holocaust - by turning the victims into the criminals, by spreading a completely unfounded claim that Hitler was of Jewish descent."

The Israeli government also invited the Russian ambassador to an interview.

Initially, the Kremlin did not confirm Putin's apology over the phone.

There it was only said that the Russian President had emphasized his country's friendly relations with Israel in the telephone call.

The topic of the phone call was also the fighting in Ukraine.

An apology from Putin is considered very unusual.

The statement from Bennett's office also said that the prime minister had sent a request to consider options for evacuating civilians from the Azovstal Steel Plant in the port city of Mariupol.

Putin has promised to facilitate an evacuation using a United Nations humanitarian corridor and the international Red Cross.

This also applies to injured civilians.

ktz/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-05-05

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