Have you missed a scary Friday THREAD about Russia's nasty habits? Here is a one about how Soviet Moscow and later Russian Moscow groomed and enjoyed worst antisemitism, and managed to combine it with anti-ukrainianism, and convince Western leftists, this all is "anti-fascist" /1
First of all, the Soviet Union was a hardcore antisemitic state. They publicly used images of a "spider Jew" which is about to suck blood out of the world, identical to the worst Nazi cartoons. Here: an antisemitic exhibition in Moscow. Note a nose and the David star /2
Where did it come from? Well, the Soviets had no problem of being allies of the Nazis. In 1939, they have invaded Poland together, held joint military operations against the Polish army, and celebrated their joint victory with a military parade. The even celebrated swastika /3
The Soviets even delivered to Gestapo those German communists (and Jews) who were stupid to escape to the USSR in a hope they would be safe. Many were killed in Germany after the deportation from Moscow. Some were even killed by the Soviet NKVD /4 bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/d…
But the real wave of state anti-semitism came after the WW2. 1948-1952 the Soviets arrested and killed 13 out of 15 members of the board of a "Jewish Antifascist Committee" in Moscow, who were accused of "working for foreign governments". Every Jew was proclaimed a suspect /5
The Soviet propaganda created an image of a Jewish doctor who instead of treating patients poisons them out of hate against the USSR and for the money of the Western intelligence agencies and "The Joint" Jewish agency. Here is a typical cartoon, note "The Joint" inscription /6
As tensions between the USSR and Israel increased, the USSR invested in Arab partners, and state antisemitism became Soviet routine. The Jews were accused of being apprentices of the Nazis. Here: Soviet cartoons, a Rabbi orders to build "a new Auschwitz". Note a nose again /7
In harmony with the Nazi inspiration, the Soviets portrayed the Jews as blood-thirsty barbarians, obsessed with animal passion for destruction. As animals after all. /8
Interestingly, that the Soviets developed another target for their racist hate. They started to portrait Jews together with Ukrainians, picturing both as enemies. Anti-ukrainianism was developed as a twin of Soviet antisemitism, and they always appeared together. /9
Well, what happened next? In today's Russia, antisemitism perfectly matches anti-ukrainianism, as Volodymyr @ZelenskyyUa is a Jew who is the President of Ukraine! And exactly as 50 years ago, Moscovites picture a Ukrainian Jew as a Nazi. Just have a look at these RU cartoons! /10
@ZelenskyyUa Is it a "wild uncontrolled" development? No. Putin made antisemitic attacks on @ZelenskyyUa on TV. Putin: "The Western masters placed an ethnic Jew, a person with Jewish roots, at the head of Ukraine": /11
@ZelenskyyUa It is a classic antisemitic rhetoric on "puppeteers", "Jews". Moreover: this Putin's interview was not spontaneous. The journalist from RIA Novosti, a part of state-owned propaganda RT holding, clearly knew what to ask. Putin came WITH the intention to make this statement /12
It is not the first case when Putin attacks Zelensky's Jewish heritage. In June 2023, Putin said, Zelensky "is a shame of the Jewish nation" and "not a Jew at all" (whatever it should mean) /13 dw.com/ru/putin-snova…
Anti-semitism is very typical for KGB, Soviet/Russian Foreign Ministry, SVR etc. Moscow saw Jews as "natural traitors", many jobs and universities were closed for Jews. Not a surprise, that Putin's FM Lavrov said in 2022, Hitler "had Jewish blood" /14 bbc.com/news/world-mid…
In 2022, Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt left Russia and urged all Jews to do the same, as the level of antisemitism reached extremely dangerous level in Russia, and Jewish lives were directly endangered /15 rferl.org/a/moscow-rabbi…
But is it a new development? No. Already in 2017, powerful Russia's Investigative Committee started an investigation on... "ritual murder" on Czar's family in 1918: an antisemitic theory says that Jews killed Czar in a "ritual murder" to reign Russia: /16 dw.com/ru/ск-рф-прове…
This rhetorics only increased lately, but not appeared out of nowhere. For example, as Russian pop star Alla Pugacheva criticised Putin, she was openly called by her colleague Talyzina in media as "secretly a daughter of a Jew": /17 svoboda.org/a/antisemitska…
Putin went on with his antisemitic statements, saying about a Russian exile politician who emigrated to Israel: “he escaped to Israel. He is not Anatoly Borisovich anymore but some sort of Moishe Israelivich”. In Nazi Reich, Jews were forced to have “a typical Jewish” name /17
Tu-95 strategic bombers, destroyed en mass today by Ukraine's FPV drones, are not only a backbone of russia's aviation. Tu-95 was designed in 1950s, with its NK-12 engines created by a Nazi SS colonel Ferdinand Brandner, a POW in the USSR. It is a flying diesel punk Nazi crap ⬇️
Brandner was a Nazi engine designer, taken by the Soviets. He started to work for another genocidal regime, and has created the NK-12 engine, until today the largest turboprop engine. After his release in 1955, Brandner worked for antisemitic Egypt and for communist China. ⬇️
Tu-95 remains the only reliable plane for the russians, as it can carry a necessary payload of multiple cruise missiles (as many missiles fail by start, and 70-80% get shot down by Ukrainian AirDefense, russia depends on massive launches, so Tu-160 or Tu-22M cannot do this job)⬇️
A brilliant Ukrainian scholar Valery Pekar nails it: as @realDonaldTrump says, #Putin went crazy, smth happened to him, he started killing people, this marks a core Western delusion about russia: "they are organically democratic and good, the current war is just a deviation". ⬇️
Too many Western decision takers, thinkers, multiplicators believe that russia is basically a democratic culture with great culture, and any terror phase is a sort of a "mental disease", a deviation which can be healed (for instance, by removing Putin and installing Navalny).⬇️
In reality, the opposite is true: being a genocidal empire is a natural, healthy condition for russia. The concept of russia was created in the 1700s exactly as a borderless, perpetually expanding body, built on terror. It can mimic democratic institutions but never adopts them⬇️
THREAD What we witness now from the White House, is a clear smearing campaign aimed not only at @ZelenskyyUa but on Ukraine at whole. Zelensky is being used as a target, but with a goal to weaken Ukraine in whole, and to strengthen Moscow. Let me explain: 👇
President @ZelenskyyUa was verbally attacked by President Trump many times, with the following four main accusation lines:
a) Zelensky is ungrateful
b) Zelensky is corrupt
c) Zelensky is a dictator
d) Zelensky has started the war / is interested in war.
Nothing is true. 2/x👇
@ZelenskyyUa President Zelensky has thanked the U.S. people dozens of times for the help provided. "Corruption" is a typical russian lie, used also by russia-friendly voices, who claimed with no proves that Ukraine-delivered arms were "stolen". But let us address other accusations 3/x👇
Some thoughts on recent russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities 1) russia is facing a huge and growing problem with its offensive slowing down, unsustainably high losses, and even some Ukrainian counter-offensive in Pokrovsk region; 2) russia uses two tactics to counter it:👇
3) First, russia starts "negotiations". The goal is to slow Ukraine down, to limit Ukrainian striking freedom (ban Ukrainian strikes on the Black Sea navy, on russian oil refineries etc.), while accumulating military power; 4) Second, russia increases PsyOps against Ukraine. 👇
4.1) russia's missile strikes on Ukraine's cities are demonstratively brutal: ballistic missiles with cluster munition warheads aiming civilians' gatherings, incl. children playgrounds;
4.2) at the same time, russia spreads false info that they have targeted military personnel👇
THREAD: Ok, let us have a sober look at the U.S. - Ukraine - Russia - EU constellation. First: the U.S. - Ukraine agreement was not necessary for Ukraine. It was not necessary for the U.S. as well. It was necessary only for Trump, therefore he is vulnerable. Let me explain. /1
The "agreement" didn't provide Ukraine with anything. It was aimed on payment for the U.S. from Ukraine (and practically allowed the U.S. to mine Ukrainian resources on Russia-occupied lands). Trump needed it to prove that he is a great dealer. But why did Ukraine need it? /2
The agreement did not foresee any U.S. military support, guarantees, even "commitments". Ukraine paid retrospective for what they have got for free. So for Ukraine, it was a pure cost factor, for Trump - pure profit factor. And he needed it asap. Therefore - he was vulnerable. /3
In four weeks, Feb. 23rd, Germany will have preliminary elections. In this THREAD I will try to explain what it is about, who would probably win, where are bottlenecks, and what it means for the world and for Ukraine. /1 ⬇️
First, we need to understand: German electoral system is designed to dilute votes. No job higher than a city mayor gets elected directly. The reason is the Nazi past: no politician may claim being elected by the PEOPLE. So people vote for parties, and they name politicians. /2⬇️
So people vote for parties, and parties need 50%+1 vote to name a head of a region, or a chancellor. Normally, no party gets over 50%, so a coalition is needed (on a federal level, conservatives from the CDU under Adenauer have got 50,2% in 1957, but still formed a coalition)/3⬇️