WaPo | Jewish groups and U.S. lawmakers condemned Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s suggestion that the 2016 U.S. presidential election may have
been manipulated by Russian Jews.
Putin’s remarks came during a
long and occasionally surreal interview with NBC News on Saturday, in
which he speculated that nearly anyone other than the Russian
government could have been behind a program to disrupt the election. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Putin ordered the effort to undermine faith in the U.S. election and help elect Donald Trump as president.
“Maybe they’re not even Russians,” Putin told Megyn Kelly,
referring to who might have been behind the election interference.
“Maybe they’re Ukrainian, Tatars, Jews — just with Russian citizenship.”
He
also speculated that France, Germany or “Asia” might have interfered
in the election — or even Russians paid by the U.S. government.
But his
remark about Jews, which seemed to suggest that a Russian Jew was not
really a Russian, prompted particular outrage among those who remember
Russia’s centuries-long history of anti-Semitism and Jewish purges. Some
groups compared the statement to anti-Jewish myths that helped inspire
the Holocaust.
“Repulsive Putin remark deserves to be denounced, soundly and promptly, by world leaders,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote on Twitter. “Why is Trump silent?” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) also demanded a response by Trump, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
0 comments:
Post a Comment