Antisemitic conspiracy theories are being applied to the Russian war on Ukraine. In all social networks it can be read abundantly that the presidents of the two countries listen to rabbis and Jewish oligarchs, that the president of Ukraine himself is a Jew and that he was put there by a Jewish oligarch.
The antisemitic narratives circulating around the Russian war in Ukraine typically related to profit from the war. "The Jews" are secretly pulling the strings behind it.
The war in Ukraine had proven the latest issue around which antisemites could frame their conspiracy narratives. Powerful Jewish forces would be secretly directing world events. The key question is being repeated: "Who benefits?" And in the mind of antisemites, "It’s the Jews.”
At the end of the Second World War, when the Red Army entered the West, thousands of Jews on the frontline met with other Jews. Some had survived the Holocaust, others were American, English and French soldiers. Many were related. These meetings were so highly dramatic and sentimental – often taking place next to the mortal remains of murdered relatives – that Stalin forbade any mention of the role of the Jews. This was considered “far too cosmopolitan” in the Red Army, created by Leon Trotsky. Russians, Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Belarusians and others are still praised to this day. The Jews have been forgotten. Even today in Russia and Ukraine, simple folk say that the Jews did not fight but ran away from the frontline. The first Jews who displayed their medals after the war were asked the famous question, “Where did you buy those medals?”
