During the lead-up to and the prosecution of the war against the Ukraine, Russia, via Putin, his fellow travellers and his apologists have trundled out lies ranging from the ludicrous, through the outrageous to, the grotesque.  Russia claimed its ‘Special Operation’ against the Ukraine was aimed to de-nazify it.   This claim served not only as a hastily plucked fig leaf against world opprobrium, but also to mobilise the Russian people.  The Russians react with particular horror at the word Nazi who were responsible for up to 27 million deaths in WWII, directly and indirectly.  To reinforce this, Russia routinely publishes pictures of satanic symbols etc found on buildings that had been occupied by Ukrainian soldiers.  Lying has become part of the DNA of Russians to ensure personal safety, so I would not trust their authenticity.

The de-nazify lie failed to gain traction internationally, particularly since President Zelensky of the Ukraine is Jewish.  In an attempt to bolster their position, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, floated the bizarre lie during an interview on Italian TV on 1 May.  He claimed that Hitler had Jewish roots.

The Russian propaganda machine also indulges in a disgusting amount of bluster and dick swinging about how Russia is going to nuke puny Britain off the face of the Earth complete with graphics, not to mention other European countries.  But even more sinister for the Russians themselves, and I presume captured Ukrainians was a statement by Karen Shakhnazarov.  He leads the state-backed Mosfilm film studio and said on the state-owned Russian television channel Russia 1 a few days after the Hitler claim, ‘The opponents of the letter Z must understand that if they are counting on mercy, no, there will be no mercy for them.’   He then went on to add, ‘It’s all become very serious. In this case, it means concentration camps, re-education and sterilisation.’   Not only does this harken back to the bad old days (not that Russia has had many good days in the last century or two) of the Siberian Gulag but also has shades of the evils of Nazism – a case of the pot calling the kettle black.  Not quite the tone to take when accusing the other guys of being Nazis.